Re: ObamaRama 8
I'm not inclined to give the president much of a hard time for showing respect to HIM. However, the context here is that he did the same thing for the head of the House of Saud and his press secretary and others denied it was a bow, when it obviously was.
The depth of a bow is generally predicated on who's doing the bowing and who is being bowed to. An employee bows more deeply to an employer. A higher ranking official bows less deeply to a lower ranking official, etc. Here I think the president was right to bow, but it looks like he's checking out the tassels on HIM's loafers. A respectful head nod would have sufficed. However, I don't think it's a particularly big deal.
However, what is a much bigger deal to me was the president's inability to have an answer for the inevitable "what is your opinion on the use of nuclear weapons on Japan," question or a derivative. He simply was unable to answer and that bespeaks a certain lack of staff work. The correct answer, of course, is "we did what we had to do to end a war you started."
Even then that's more a sign of great respect rather than subservience.