The blogosphere is aflame with latest Obama bow, in this instance to “President” Hu Jintau of China.

We think people might be missing the real disappointment these bows represent, and are instead caught up in the horror of the image of the President of the United States bowing to anyone. That reaction is understandable if you consider one of America’s founding paradigms to have been that we bow before no King (or dictator) be it symbolically through taxes or jizyah, let alone literally.

That aside, the real disappointment about the Obama bow is what it says about the American people, who elected a stranger – and the media outlets who for fear of losing candidate access and campaign commercial ad buys never brought to light the details of Barack Obama’s past – or the political machine that raised him.

It doesn’t matter that Barack Obama bows. People can feel free to bow if that is how they feel comfortable expressing a greeting to people.

It does matter that the President of the United States bows, because he represents the nation, and thus it carries significant symbolic consequences.

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Here we go again.  President Obama bowed to the Chinese President and the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Jintao, when they met in Washington yesterday.  This latest bow comes after a string of previously humiliating and ridiculous Bama bows: to the Saudi king, the Japanese emperor, and (my favorite) the Mayor of Tampa, Florida.

After all of this deferential bowing, the Saudis are still supporting and exporting Islamic terrorism and radicalism and the Japanese are still in our face about our military bases there.  I’m pretty sure Tampa must still have some sort of beef with Washington.  But the point is that no matter how much groveling the Bama does, the result is the same: total contempt from those
he’s trying desperately to charm with his “humility.”

The latest example is Hu, who looked completely baffled and slightly amused at the sight of the President of the United States and supposed champion of freedom, bowing before him.  Of course, he read it as American weakness (as he and everyone else in the world had read the Bama’s previous bows).  The result?  Earlier yesterday, Team Obama rushed to the media to trumpet a
breakthrough of sorts with the Chinese over sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program.  Jeff Bader, a top Obama national security official, proclaimed, ”They are prepared to work with us.”

Not so fast.

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On January 28th, President Obama traveled to Tampa, FL. This is how he greeted the mayor of Tampa, an American city the last time we checked. These gratuitous displays of public humility suggest a deeper narcissism than we feared.