Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Obama in Riyadh: Another bow?

Obama will be meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

You know what that means. We should see Obama do that move that everyone in the world considered to be a bow, everyone except Robert Gibbs, White House aides, and assorted hacks.

Video of Obama's G-20 London bow here.

The White House said what looked to be a bow was really just taller Obama bending over to greet the much shorter king. Well, King Abdullah hasn't grown. If Obama doesn't do the same move, it will be clear that his gesture was not a matter of height back in April.

Robert Gibbs must be in a cold sweat over this already.

Then again, a bow controversy would take the heat off the Obamas' extravagant, environmentally unfriendly New York City Broadway date night.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is beginning his latest bid to open a dialogue with the Muslim world by paying a call on Saudi King Abdullah, guardian of Islam's sacred sites in Mecca and Medina.

The monarch of Saudi Arabia plans to greet Obama at Riyadh's main airport with coffee and ceremony when he arrives Wednesday after an overnight flight from Washington.

Saudi Arabia is a stopover en route to Cairo, where Obama is to set deliver a speech that he's been promising since last year's election campaign—aiming to set a new tone in America's often-strained dealings with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

...Obama's meeting with the 84-year-old Abdullah will be his second in three months. The two saw each other at the G-20 summit in London, a meeting both sides called friendly and productive. Perhaps a bit too friendly: Critics accused Obama of bowing to the Saudi monarch during a photo-op. The White House maintained he was merely bending to shake hands with a shorter man.

Will Obama bow or won't he?

If he doesn't, it debunks all the excuses from the White House over his G-20 deep bend.

If he does, Obama will be pictured in that compromising, subservient position once again.

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