Why The U.S. President Should Not Bow To World Leaders

I know I am about a week late, but I feel the need to chime in on the picture of The Magician bowing before Japanese Emperor Akihito that is floating around on the Internet, and the grumbling over the image that is going on across America.

The picture shows The Magician bowing, almost at a 90-degree angle with his head down before the Japanese Emperor. The proper way to bow to a peer is to keep your head up, look forward with your eyes looking directly at the person you are bowing to, both of you bowing at the same time, both of you bowing to an equal level, and in this case, regardless of height difference. If the other person chooses to not look up at you or bow down further than you, then that is their choice, but you should not do so under any circumstance, especially if you are the President of the United States of America. Make no mistake about it. The bow in this picture is how you would bow to show respect to someone above you, or to show your submission.

I think that someone in his staff should have briefed The Magician on this beforehand, and maybe even practiced it with him. The briefing should have touched on ensuring that he sent a message that he is on a level playing field, but I am afraid that The Magician was probably briefed with more of a stance that ensured proper respect was shown, even to the extent of it erring on the side of submission. That, my friends, was the mistake in this situation.

Let's bear in mind that a lot of what is circulating around the web is a still image, so we must be considerate of the fact that this is one frame in what was a fairly quick action, but the fact remains, these still images do now exist and are making their way around the world, and they show, unmistakably, the President of the United States of America bowing submissively before the Japanese Emperor.

I think most Americans are not necessarily bothered by the fact that The Magician would bow to a world leader out of respect, but it is the interpretation of him bowing so low in front of another world leader that is causing the uproar, especially among folks on my side of the aisle. Any sitting U.S. President should show respect to the Queen of England, but not take a knee before her. These pictures show the President of the United States of America making a very similar gesture as kneeling before the Queen in bowing in that manner before the Japanese Emporer.

You take this incident in conjunction with the already infamous bow before the King of Saudi Arabia and the infamous exchange with Hugo Chavez at the U.N., and you have the makings of a very strong case that the United States of America no longer considers itself to be a world leader, the world's sole remaining Super Power, but in fact, an America that is not only possibly on a level playing field with all of the world, but on its way to being someone's whipping boy. I, for one, do not like this message.

These, in my opinion, are prime examples of why the arguments were being made that The Magician was not ready for this post. Call the Great Satan George Junior all that you want to, but that man never put this country in a position of submission at any point during his eight years in office, even with the King of Saudi Arabia, who for all intents and purposes was one of his father's peers and associates.

The bottom line is that in just his first year in office, The Magician is sending a very clear message to leaders around the world, and yes, our enemies around the world, that the United States of America is no longer a power to be reckoned with; that we are no longer a shining beacon on a hill, but simply another suburbanite in the world's neighborhood.