It seems we have a bipartisan lock on les faux pas
About that bow. Did he or didn't he - the president of the United States, that is - bow to Saudi King Abdullah in a deferential greeting? And, if he did, is it of great - or any - consequence?
From the outrage emanating from those who can find little to admire about the current president, one would think Barack Obama had given the German chancellor a back rub. Or kissed the royal cheeks of the queen of Spain. Both of which, in fact, George W. Bush did while president. The left went wild over les faux pas du George. Now, it seems, it's the right's turn to display equal pique.
No one of either party has cause for casting stones in these matters. Whether Republicans or Democrats, Americans are often formidably awkward around monarchs. Do we buss one or both checks? Do we kiss the ring? Do we bow, curtsy, extend our pinkies - or shine our shoes? It's complicated, this parlor game of politesse. But it does matter. When you're the leader of the free world, every gesture and word counts.
It is not in our DNA to bow to monarchs or to act beholden to anyone save God. We kneel before no human. Yet, occasionally, we are required to behave politely in countries that still cleave to their pomp and circumstance. For such purposes, we have hirelings to instruct us in questions of protocol. We wonder lately where they are? Who didn't tell Michelle Obama that one doesn't put an arm around the queen of England, no matter how endearing we renegades might find it? Who didn't tell the president that the United States does not bow, especially not to rulers of countries where women are less valuable than sheep?
Paging Letitia Baldridge ... the towering grand dame of all things proper who was the ruling knuckle-rapper during America's Camelot period. Whatever their other flaws, the Kennedys could be counted on to mind their p's and q's in public thanks to Baldridge - officially White House social secretary and chief of staff to Jacqueline Kennedy.
Manners aren't complicated, Baldridge once told me. "Manners are simply showing consideration for others." Which is to say, you do as the Romans. That doesn't mean we compromise our own values in the process. Hence Rule No. 1: Americans don't bow to monarchs.
I've now watched the tape of Obama's bow a dozen or more times. It is simply not possible to accept an anonymous White House official's insistence that Obama was merely reaching down to take the king's hand and had to bend over because of the height difference. I've met the king and I've met the president. We're not talking Gulliver and the Lilliputians.
To any objective observer, Obama's bend from the waist quacked like a duck. It was ... a bow. Clumsy, embarrassing and unbecoming a president, yes, but no act of treason."
Obama was probably trying to be respectful and, it appears, may even have lost his balance a little. On a bright note, he didn't throw up on the king, as George H.W. Bush managed to do upon Japan's prime minister's lap during dinner. Quite the unfortunate little mess, that.
We elect presidents for a variety of reasons, though not usually for their aristocratic bearings. And few of them are presidential out of the starting gate. We are, alas, commoners, one and all. And proud of it, apparently.
Our forefathers, moreover, spilled blood so that we wouldn't have to bow to kings and queens. So it is. And, one hopes, shall ever be.
In the meantime, given the season of second chances, we might grant the Obamas a little slack. We might also nudge them to invite Ms. Baldridge to tea.
© 2009, Washington Post Writers Group