Idiotic Or "Sensitive"?

Somehow, if he simply got on his knees instead it would look less ridiculous - and not just because he's a foot taller than the Japanese imperial couple:

It's not like this is anything new for False Messiah.  I suppose the biggest danger for Americans is to become accustomed to their president prostrating himself before every foreign potentate, as opposed to just those of them who are our enemies.

But there are other pitfalls, particularly from our allies, who recognize the inappropriateness of such, um, slavish symbolism from the representative of what is supposed to be the global hegemon:

“Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel.

“Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.

“The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.

Imagine that; perhaps Red Barry is actually trying to pussify his way to turning the Japanese against us, so that he can then win them back with whatever concessions he hasn't already distributed to Putin, Uncle Hugo, the mullahs, Kim, et al.  For someone who sold himself on foreign policy as having superior "judgment," who put such a big, wet, sloppy emphasis on "diplomacy," and was dubbed the obligatorily Smartest Man On The Planet by virtue of his party affiliation, he really is having to resort to the incompetence defense an awful lot AT HOME, much less when he ventures overseas.

Frankly, I don't buy the "his protocol shop is run by imbeciles" excuse, as true as that obviously is, nor the "he's a victim of his own hype" alibi, since he does nothing (intentionally) to disavow the idolatry lathered upon him on a daily basis, and indeed still actively encourages it.  The reason is straightforward and inescapable: HE'S THE PRESIDENT and therefore is SUPPOSED TO KNOW BETTER.  I think it's just another manifestation of his shame at being the (ugh) American president before he's had the chance to finish Obamifying his country into his own image.  Because, you know, he thought that task was going to be long since accomplished by now, and himself basking in the eternal glory of his heavenly kingdom, not careening toward a Nebuchadnezzaresque fate.

I'd go with the "reflex" argument, with plenty of "pussification" leavening.  The quickest way for B.O. to avoid these gaffes may be no more complicated than to "man up."  Exercise some self-respect, if not the genuine patriotism of which his flinty soul is utterly bereft.  "I'm Barry Obama, blast it, and I don't care if I haven't shipped all those !#$%^&* teabaggers off to the Alaska Gulag yet, I bow to nobody!"

I mean, it's not like any other world leader appears to suffer from this particular lumbar tic....