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Barack Obama’s Saudi Arabian Shuffle

By Larry Johnson on April 5, 2009 at 7:00 PM in Current Affairs

(Bumped up from yesterday afternoon . with this update from Hot Air: “Flashback: NYT scolded Clinton for almost bowing to royalty.” The New York Times excorciated President Bill Clinton in 1994 for this mild gesture:

It wasn’t a bow, exactly. But Mr. Clinton came close. He inclined his head and shoulders forward, he pressed his hands together. It lasted no longer than a snapshot, but the image on the South Lawn was indelible: an obsequent President, and the Emperor of Japan.

Today’s media, including the Times, give President Obama a pass for his 90-degree bow from the waist. “When will the New York Times cover this, even to the extent they covered Clinton’s inclined shoulders? Or is the unthinkable in 1994 turned into the unmentionable in 2009, thanks to a national media that has completely sold out to Barack Obama?,” asks Ed Morrissey.

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It is bad enough that the absence of a credible energy policy has put America in a servile position vis-a-vis the Saudis. That is not the fault of Barack Obama. But what in the hell was he thinking when he did his bowing and scraping routine in front of King Abdullah? Looks like he was auditioning for the movie, The Hollywood Shuffle:

The Saudis apparently were not all that impressed with the Barack bow. This piece in the Arab News lays the wood to Obama for dropping the ball in coming up with a “new” Afghan policy.

The so-called new plan is nothing but Bush’s old wine in Obama’s new bottle. So much for the “Change We Can”! Looks like the pundits who mocked our boundless adulation for Obama and celebration of “change in Washington” were right after all. They were right when they insisted that whoever is in charge in Washington, the US foreign policy seldom changes. This is unfortunate considering the great expectations and hopes the new president’s talk of exploring a “new way forward” had spawned across the Muslim world. . . .

By blindly signing on the dotted line drawn by men picked up by Bush and Cheney, Obama is wittingly or unwittingly pitching for the same agenda that has been at the heart of most of the world’s current political and economic woes. . . .

The US can deal with the mess in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere only when it confronts these uncomfortable home truths. Is that asking too much of a leader who had his heart and mind in the right place to see through the duplicity of Iraq war? Surely someone whose entire life has been a metaphor for change and the “audacity of hope” can see what the people in Afghanistan and Pakistan or Palestine want or hope for? Or why the murderous Al-Qaeda-Taleban squads continue to multiply by the day?

For if Afghanistan and Pakistan are burning today, it’s because the world looked the other way when the land of olives and prophets was burned down. If I were in Obama’s shoes, I would be looking for the folks and factors that started the fire that is threatening to consume our world.

Besides bowing low to the Saudis it looks like Barack will be needing to do some major butt snorkeling and Saudi foot hugging.

If you think I’m crossing a line here then check out the following video and judge for yourself:

Or maybe, just maybe, Barack signed up for the black acting lessons:

An American President bowing to a Saudi? That’s not change I want to believe in.