President Barack Obama unfairly criticized for following the rules of International Protocol
Japans cultural customary greeting is a sign of respect
The customs and regulations dealing with diplomatic formality, precedence, and etiquette is the definition of protocol.
The United States has had an upper executive level position that is as close to consulting and directing the specific details and directions that assist the president in issues governing how to greet the multitude of heads of states that visit the White House, as well as when the President travels internationally to foreign lands.
The name of the position is called the Chief of Protocol of the United States, and Ambassador Capricia Penavic Marshall was sworn in as Chief of Protocol of the United States on August 3, 2009.
This is a summary of the duties of the Chief of Protocol as explained on their website….
Whether rolling out the red carpet for a King visiting the President at the White House, hosting a Prime Minister at the President’s guesthouse, traveling overseas with the President, credentialing a new foreign Ambassador, or planning events for the Secretary of State, the duties of the Office of the Chief of Protocol are many and varied.
Led by Ambassador Marshall and Deputy Chiefs of Protocol Dennis Cheng and Lee Satterfield, the office is responsible for activities including the planning, hosting, and officiating of ceremonial events for visiting chiefs of state and heads of government, as well as coordinating logistics for the visits; managing Blair House, the President’s guesthouse; and overseeing all protocol matters for Presidential or Vice Presidential travel abroad, working alongside the White House.
All involved in the Office of Protocol are experts in this area. Protocol and the rules of decorum are critical in dealing within the international arena.
The pundits, neocon sycophants, and Republican haters of our President are not, yet they are spreading misinformation to those that are predisposed to believe their special form of sedition. The smart people are yet again preying on the mental weaknesses of the dumb people, and are spinning a simple greeting into something that it is not,treason.In fact their charges against our president is treasonous.
As usual they are up to their old devilish tricks.At least they are consistent,for what it is worth.
News photos of President Barack Obama bowing to Japan’s emperor have gotten the neocons panties in a twist here, who said the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas, as if the rules of protocol in international politics are something that Joe the Plumber can figure out as easy as the rules of a street fight.
International politics is not a street fight, and like all other specialties, there are highly specialized techniques and rules to adhere to,and the interpretation of the greeting traditionally is based on what the meaning of the gesture is in the foreign land.
Obviously President Obama’s blackness makes him an untraditional president, but that is not of his doing; it is what the bigots in and around the Republican party, and independents of their ilk are making it.I blame Rupert Murdoch mainly, and call for his deportation.
Characterizing a bow, which in many cultures is a greeting, as an act of contrition and weakness, is disingenuous on the part of the critics,irresponsible, and racist. What is more disturbing is the fact that these elite political Republican pundits know this, and have done similar gestures in their political and social life, and have participated, rightly so, in greeting foreign leaders in international lands, in a manner that is customary in that foreign land without being subjected to any ignorant racist re-interpretations.
I am offended by the traitor Republican propagandist Bill Kristol’s characterization of a cultural ‘bow’ as a sign of weakness….”I don’t know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it’s not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one,” said conservative pundit William Kristol speaking on the Fox News Sunday program, adding that the gesture bespoke a United States that has become weak and overly deferential under Obama…
In Japan, and every country and culture that bowing, rather shaking ones hand, is a common sign of respect, and Bill Kristol, world traveler and scholar, knows this.I find this statement by Kristol to be a racist slur against the great culture of Japan, and I demand that he apologize and detract his slur. His father must be rolling in his grave…
I clearly understand Kristol to be calling the entire Japanese culture and Emporer as being ”weak” because of their custom of using the cultural bow as a greeting rather than a handshake. It is very clear that he is making a racial slur against the Japanese culture, and is an epic low in the history of the Republican party, and the Kristol legacy.
In light of the worldwide Swine- flu pandemic, I find the gesture by President Obama to be not only respectful to the Emporer of Japan and the Japanese people, but also a high-profile example of how not to spread the flu virus.
I understand the Republicans want us all to get sick, and die quickly.That is why they do not support Universal Healthcare, President Obama , or bowing.
They are irresponsibly promoting the shaking of hands as a strong gesture, rather than the what it truly is, …a conduit to spread the H1N1 virus around the world, unchecked.This is their latest strategy to thwart universal healthcare.
If we all stop shaking hands and strongly bow to each other when we greet our friends, then that would curtail the mounting casualties from this disease that Mr. Kristol and the Republicans want us all to die from.
Another conservative voice, Bill Bennett, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “It’s ugly. I don’t want to see it.”
“We don’t defer to emperors. We don’t defer to kings or emperors. The president of the United States — this coupled with so many apologies from the United States — is just another thing,” said Bennett.
Some conservative critics juxtaposed the image of Obama with one of former US vice president Dick Cheney, who greeted the emperor in 2007 with a firm handshake but no bow.
Now, in the middle of a flu pandemic and a flu virus shortage,and the mounting casualties worldwide from the flu, whose example are you following…Dick Cheney’s or President Obama.
In order to be a true Republican, you must be willing to vote against your own self-interest, and strongly shake hands.
The Chief of Protocol for the United States specifically is directing the President to bow to world leaders, because it is a sign of respect in those countries, much like President W. Bush double cheek kiss on the face of the King of Saudi Arabia, and it is a way to promote a healthier custom in our own land.
The people actually in the driver’s seat running the country have to see the bigger picture, and they can not afford to act at their level in a base and uninformed manner.
Simple gestures around the world, mean different things from country to country, culture to culture. Informed people know that it is not relevant what the interpretation of a gesture means between two distinctly different cultures, and is not a fair or balanced measuring stick.
When informed people do this, their motivation can only be to stir up an insurrection in our land, by the uninformed citizens that believe them, and that is an act of treason.
I call for the department of justice to open an investigation into these charges against Bill Kristol and the other propagandist that spread this treason today about this Presidential bow, and I demand a retraction of the racist statement against the nation of Japan by the Republican party immediately.
I respectfully would like Kristol to explain his motivation for doing this against our country,or explain to the nation that he does not understand protocol.
If at this point he is not well versed in the rules of international protocol, then I would say that that would discredit his authority as a journalist, and his accomplishments as a journalist should not be recognized, and he should be diminished in the views of his peers.
He simply came to prominence on the lap of his daddy, who was the real talent in the family.Nepotism strikes again.
From the AFP comes this quote on the topic…. an unnamed, senior Obama administration official told the Politico.com news site that the president had simply been observing protocol.
“I think that those who try to politicize those things are just way, way, way off base,” the official told Politico.
“I don’t think anybody who was in Japan — who saw his speech and the reaction to it, certainly those who witnessed his bilateral meetings there — would say anything other than that he enhanced both the position and the status of the US, relative to Japan,” Politico wrote.
“It was a good, positive visit at an important time, because there’s a lot going on in Japan.”
Honoring a fellow world leader is and always will be a strong sign of respect, and has never been a sign of weakness, and I am embarrassed for all Americans that a political party of ours that is actively involved in governing our country, would launch such a vile a viscous slew of racial slurs against not only the Nation of Japan, but all Japanese people foreign and domestic.
It is truly a low point for our nation and for journalist and political pundits.
The Presidents example once again is the way to go.
The Republicans want to shake us all into our graves.
For more information on Bill Kristol and his father Irving Kristol, click on the links below, research them, and you tell me how likely it is that they are not familiar with the rules of protocol. If he is, then what is doing with these treasonist statements….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Kristol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Kristol
Source…
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gVGYMxyEpqIynr98qF-CA9ptFp6w
Bill Kristol hates Japanese culture and people,says they are weak...
Irving Kristol...Real talent who taught son to disrespect Japanese culture
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/09/obama-bow-to-saudis-cnn-r_n_185281.html
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