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Making a point: President Barack Obama has come under fire for bowing to Japan's emperor. Photo: Reuters
 Obama's Japan bow causes outrage
    November 16 2009 at 03:25PM Get IOL on your
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Washington - News photos of President Barack Obama bowing to Japan's emperor have incensed critics, who said the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas.



Obama on Monday was in China, having wrapped up the Japan leg of his Asia trip two days earlier. But Washington's punditocracy was still weighing whether or not the US president had disgraced his country two days earlier by having taken a deep bow at the waist while meeting Japan's Emperor Akihito.

Political talk shows have played and replayed the moment from the second day of Obama's week-long Asia tour, which set the blogosphere on fire and chat show tongues wagging.
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'It's ugly. I don't want to see it'
"I don't know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it's not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one," said conservative pundit William Kristol speaking on the Fox News Sunday program, adding that the gesture bespoke a United States that has become weak and overly-deferential under Obama.

Another conservative voice, Bill Bennett, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program: "It's ugly. I don't want to see it."

"We don't defer to emperors. We don't defer to kings or emperors. The president of the United States - this coupled with so many apologies from the United States - is just another thing," said Bennett.

Some conservative critics juxtaposed the image of Obama with one of former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who greeted the emperor in 2007 with a firm handshake but no bow.

"I'll bet if you look at pictures of world leaders over 20 years meeting the emperor in Japan, they don't bow," Kristol said.

Some said the gesture was particularly grating coming after Obama's bow to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah at a G20 meeting in April.

The US president's Asia trip comes just over a year after he won election to the White House, and is designed to shore up US power in a region increasingly dominated by rising giant China.

But back home, Obama's bow in Japan seems to have grabbed much of the attention being paid to the trip.

The gesture appears to have touched a particularly raw nerve among Obama critics who said the president has hastened America's decline as a world superpower by being too apologetic and too deferential in his dealings with other world leaders.

While most of the commentary about the bow in Japan was decidedly negative, some political observers, like longtime Democratic activist Donna Brazile, came to the president's defense.

"I think it's a gesture of kindness," she told CNN, adding that the bow appeared intended to show "goodwill between two nations that respect each other."

Meanwhile, an unnamed, senior Obama administration official told the Politico.com news site that the president had simply been observing protocol.

"I think that those who try to politicise those things are just way, way, way off base," the official told Politico.

"I don't think anybody who was in Japan - who saw his speech and the reaction to it, certainly those who witnessed his bilateral meetings there - would say anything other than that he enhanced both the position and the status of the US, relative to Japan," Politico wrote.

"It was a good, positive visit at an important time, because there's a lot going on in Japan." - AFP

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Showing page 1 of 2 comment pages, 15 total comments
12 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
I think that the arrogance shown by certain Americans is disgusting, they think they rule the world and can do as they please, also they think they can detain people without trial (and it is morally correct) -

there is constant show of disrespect to Obama by arrogant fox news presenters - they forget that Bush lied to them about Iraq
12 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
I am a democrat and a staunch Obama supporter. That said, I am disgusted by his continued bowing to foreign leaders. Read a little American history. Much blood was shed to free our country of aristocracy and classicism. We are a government by the people and for the people, a country of equals. It is wholly inappropriate for our president to bow to any foreign leader no matter what the "protocol". We do not bow to any country. I am not a conservative and I am aggravated that people assume the only people upset by this are conservatives. STOP BOWING, we can be respectful and deferential without it. What a slap in the face to all the Americans who have fought and died for freedom, democracy, and equality.
12 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
wut up! did he forget the fist bump? the arm wrestle grip and the left arm around the back and hug? he is losing it. poor, suservient obama. can we trade him to the other team, i don't want him on my team!
12 Weeks ago Daniel wrote :
As the saying goes - when in Rome, do as the Romans do... Americans think that the entire world is "little America"... the need to realise, that there is a lot more to the world than just plain little ol' America... and I hope that the CIA or FBI or whoever they are, get to read this... I'm sure they will, with all their wire taps and all that.
12 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
Shows great respect for and understanding of another culture. It has nothing to do with who is superior etc but is just the traditional greeting. Shaking hands is another form of greeting used in the USA. But the world is bigger than than the USA, and Its good Obama understands this.
12 Weeks ago Anonymous wrote :
Oh... my God it is them again. Surely, it is not a laughing matter to listen to people who describe themselves as right wingers in US.

It is just a madness.Whatever they represent symbolises satanism and inhuman. They had graduated beyond the word racist. If you are not White you're inferior and you should be over scrutinised.

If you've Arabic name, you are a Moslem.If you're an Arab you are terrorist you must be killed.They lost their mental normality long ago.

Only God can save us from these satanists.

Eddie Sibiya from Durban
12 Weeks ago Bigfoot wrote :
Obama did the right thing. Yes he can!
12 Weeks ago daveza wrote :
Small minded right-wing Yanks will clutch at the smallest straw. Have they really nothing better to do than hunt for every single supposed cock-up by Obama. Way to go Obama - in the same way your wife touched the Queen. Out with the Bush, in with the brains.
12 Weeks ago Anne wrote :
Well, much as I don't like the Dems, I think that Obama behaved with graciousness towards his host. Surely an Emperor, King, Queen, are much higher in status than the president of any country. Americans have to realise that there are people who actually have much more grace & finesse than those who live on the other side of the Atlantic. Got to cut the arrogancy!!
12 Weeks ago Tomboy wrote :
It's a sign of respect, Japan is a country steeped in tradition, to not bow to an emperor would be like slapping him in the face, just as if he had not offered his hand to greet Pres Obama.
This really is getting stupid.
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