In Japan, bowing has great significance.

First of all, you are pretty much required to bow in formal occasions. However, the bow you give to your superior must be lower than the bow he gives to you. That’s why people like CEOs and heads of state give barely perceptible bows, because if they bowed deeply, they’d compel everyone to break their backs trying to go lower.

But this system can get very touchy in situations where superiority is not obvious. If two heads of state meet, who bows lower? I think the custom is carefully calibrate the bows to be equal.

Now, my belief is that this attittude is common to every culture, even ours — it’s only been formalized in Japan. I think Americans wouldn’t mind a little bow to a foreign leader, but only if the foregin leader bowed back at least as deeply.

What many people apparently saw was the Obama bowed/dipped/whatever lower than the King, which means he was projecting America’s inferiority. Even if this was unconscious on Obama’s part, it still stings the national psyche.

Sword dances, pinky-finger carressing don’t have the same connotation. And when Bush lowered his head for the medal, he was still above the Saudi king.

That’s why this resonates with the public, whatever word one uses to describe Obama’s posture.