presidential blunders

I'll leave it to you to judge whether or not President Obama actually bowed to Saudi King Abdullah at the G20 meeting earlier this month. And I'll let you decide whether or not it was a mistake or a breach in protocol. Time will tell. For the record, the Obama administration claims it wasn't a bow, although the president later said, "We have to change our behavior in showing the Muslim world greater respect." But media reaction has been swift. Salon.com's Camille Paglia said, "I attribute that embarrassing incident not to Obama's sinister or naive appeasement of the Muslim world but to a simple if costly breakdown in basic command of protocol." Whisky Fire said it wasn't a bow, but rather a matter of geometry: "Obama is about a foot taller than Abdullah, and so had to kind of contort himself to get into any sort of position to shake the sheikh's hand." But others haven't been so kind. Michelle Malkin said, "So I hope all the lefties who tore into Bush over his Saudi prostration will express equal disgust with President HopeAndChange’s literal bowing and scraping to King Abdullah." And the Dakota Voice's Bob Ellis said, "The leader of the most free nation in the world should not be slobbering on the ring of some king!" Mistake or not, this is a fascinating discussion.