Well, at least Obama bowed to an ally
So at least that ally is not so willing to humiliate us on our president’s breach of protocols:
“Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.
“The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.
A senior White House official (read: Axelrod or Emanuel) assured Politico this morning that no Japanese observers “would say anything other than that he enhanced both the position and the status of the U.S., relative to Japan.” Consider that spin exploded, thanks to ABC.
One can only hope that our sheer strength (military and economic) is enough to get us through the remaining 3 years—and that our allies will continue to have faith in us, even when we are “led” by amateurs, and that our allies will trust our political process to remove that amateur from the position where he can cause most damage … at the earliest opportunity.
After all, the respect that we get from our allies (Japan or otherwise) come from how that respect benefits our allies, not from all the niceties that appeal to liberal sensibilities.