Nontroversy of the Weekend

Blogosphere | Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 10:50:57 am PST

On his first visit to Japan, one of America’s most valued allies, President Obama greets Emperor Akihito with a traditional bow and the right wing blogosphere completely loses it.

Some of this stuff is blatantly racist too.

A commenter at Hot Air gives his perspective:

Someone needs to give this half white half wit a swift kick in his boney black ass and remind him that Americans, especially Presidents of the United States, bow to no man, woman or beast!

A common theme among all this outraged ranting is that US Presidents must never bow to a foreign leader. Bloggers all over the country are utterly convinced of it, as if they learned this fine point of Presidential etiquette right after the Pledge of Allegiance in Civics 101.

Oddly enough, I don’t recall ever hearing this universal truism before Barack Obama was elected President. Where’s this rule written down? I searched for quite a while during the last stupid “Bowgate” nontroversy, and couldn’t find it anywhere. Here’s the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol web page; maybe you’ll have better luck. I think it’s a right wing urban legend.

I have to wonder if Obama was deliberately yanking the right’s chain; he must have known they’d freak out, after all of the silliness over his bow to Saudi King Abdullah.