Last night, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper cited his source, an expert on Japanese culture who said the president of the United States not only broke protocol by bowing to the Emperor of Japan, but his bow was “inappropriate” and “displayed weakness.”
Obama broke protocol by bending deep at the waist and taking his eyes off the person he was bowing to — a very amateurish error.
Pictures of Barack Obama’s deep, subservient bow to Emperor Akihito on Saturday were considered so inappropriate for a foreign leader that the Japanese newspaper refused to run the photos to spare Obama any further embarrassment. Instead, the papers ran images of Obama’s reciprocated “nod and shake” with the empress of Japan.
The source explained, “Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel.”
“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. [Ouch!]
“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.
“BTW, Obama’s bow at Suntory Hall was much better. Correct angle, slight bow. His hands were wrong but the physical tone was correct and appropriate.
