What is this (How low will he go? Obama gives Japan's Emperor Akihito a wow bow, Obamateurism of the Day)? If you were thinking that it's OK, because in Japan they bow to each other like shaking hands, you are wrong. They do not do this. Heads of state do not do this to the Emperor. Even a Japanese garbage collector (absolutely no offense meant to the perfectly honorable and essential profession of Sanitation Engineering) would not bow this low to the Emperor. Past 45 degrees is too much. This is not the Edo Period. The fact that the President did this is not respectful. It shows he couldn't be bothered to get properly informed about the customs and that's not a sign of respect, that's a sign of disdain. Though certainly not intentional (the intended insult was certainly on us), that's how many Japanese will view it.

State must certainly have had protocol people on board who could, and certainly did, inform Obama about this, and he just as clearly overruled them and went with it. That's his final call as President, much as Ronald Reagan overruled his advisers and kept "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down this Wall!" in his now famous speech. The difference is that Reagan did it and created something great, Obama did it and once again showed himself the amateur that he is. There are forms here, forms developed in diplomatic circles over hundreds, even thousands of years, but this profoundly arrogant man believes history begins and ends with him.

State must also have told him that American heads of state don't bow...ever! 'Ever' means even before George Bush. Imagine! He has a reason for continuing to do this, and it goes right along with the world-wide apology tour and the constant pleading that American is "no longer" the arrogant swaggerer. He wants America to blend in to the background, to be just another nation among nations, even if it means abasing himself and the nation he's supposed to be leading. It won't work. It can't work, because it's never been the case. For our entire history America has been more than just one among many and it's far beyond Barack Obama's ability to change reality to that extent.

The President needs to leave the running around embarrassed and apologizing for America to the local campus creeps and realize there's more to being Presidential than walking around with your nose in the air. It's long past time to leave the self-abasement to us schlubs and maintain a little bit of the continuity of leadership he's inherited.

Update: Jake Tapper notes that Nixon did bow to the Emperor, but also this: