Your Lyin’ Eyes
After 100 days, the gilt is wearing off the rented halo, and the bumbles and gaffes of the Obama Administration have managed to match the days in office so far. Critics have found the following one, and its aftermath, emblematic:
As in the old story of the man who comes home to find his wife in bed with another man, the White House response to photographs and video of the President abasing himself before a foreign potentate has consisted of bald denials on the order of, “Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”
Of course, The One’s fawning worshipers are quick to note that his predecessor also seemed strangely intimate with the head of the Wahhabi theocratic state:
The uncommitted observer will note that Dubya, while looking distinctly like smiling Abdullah had just given him the “harem boy” treatment, is walking hand in hand, but side by side, not bowing his head or bending his knee. (In fact, he looks as though he couldn’t bend his knee if he tried.)
Conspiracy theorists may suspect the Secretary of State of failing to give the First Couple the appropriate warnings about “inappropriate touching” of monarchs. We here at AC suspect that the true explanation of Barry’s lowering his head in front of the medieval monarch has not yet come forth.
Clearly the correct caption, which the White House is equally anxious to deny, would be, “President Barack Hussein Obama bends over in front of King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia to consult his CIA-installed shoetop teleprompter”.
Horatius
TimeFlies Said,
April 30, 2009 @ 10:17 pm
Ha ha I have finally lived in Japan long enough to understand what “inappropriate touching” outside of a sexual context might mean. I am referring to the touching of the Queen. I can imagine and understand the gasping that might have occurred. I can also understand that touching is such a part of North American culture and communication, that it would require conscious effort not to do so.
As for bowing, had the King also bowed, I would have never considered it as a gesture of “submission” simply because I rarely bow in that mindset, though I bow often. Most of the time, I bow as a gesture of respect, or in apology, not in submission.
Ian Said,
May 4, 2009 @ 6:29 pm
The White House has acknowledged that President Obama dropped his car keys while speaking with the King of Saudi Arabia. Secondly, if this blog continues to suggest that our King bowed before another King then the White House Press Corps will be used to destroy your reputation. I always wondered if Nixon was a Democrat how he would have been treated for his wanton abuse of power - we now know.
Ian Said,
May 7, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/05/bankruptcy-atto.html
Who are you going to believe?
There He Goes Again Said,
November 16, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
[...] same people who breathlessly assure us the President is not chain-smoking) that he didn’t bow to the guardian of Mecca? Well, now it’s “Tenno Heika Banzai!” from the Nobel [...]