From my perspective, he bowed.  And he bowed deep and long.  It doesn’t matter if he was mistaken in protocol or was in awe of meeting a king.  To me, it shows a lack of regard for his position and a lack of understanding of America’s foundation.

Could you imagine Mr. Washington or  Mr. Jefferson bowing to a king?  True, I wasn’t there so I’m guessing when I say that I don’t believe they would.  According to Webster, the definition of bow is “to bend the head, body, or knee in reverence, submission, or shame.”  He did at least two of the three.  Maybe the King of Saudia Arabia is a nice guy, I don’t know him so I can’t say.  But come on.  Showing that level of respect diminishes the position Mr. Obama was elected to hold.  He is suppose to be the elected leader of the free world yet he just bowed to a king.  A person that has subjects.  A person that achieved his position by birth right, not achievement.  A person that sees the people of his land as lesser beings.  What is there to be in awe of?  Mr. Obama, your action was disrespectful to all that have looked to America as a free land.  You, for a moment at least, looked up to (literally) a king.  How can you place so much respect in his position?  He does not govern free people, he rules over them.

For a living, I analyze the competitive positions of corporations.  I spend a lot of time looking for that one thing that allows a company to succeed, that has given it its value.  Sometimes it’s easy to see, but often, the true nugget that gives a company an advantage lies deep inside and not obvious to the naked eye.  When I look at America’s competitive advantage, it should be obvious but many have forgotten.  If you ask people, they will say it’s our size, wealth, natural resources, limited borders, etc.  Those aren’t it.  Those are the products of our competitive advantage.  Our country didn’t exist 300 years ago, yet we are the largest now.  We didn’t start out with only Mexico, Canada, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans on our borders.  We expanded out to them.  We weren’t the weathiest country 100 years ago.  We grew to that position. 

So what is our competitive advantage?  To me, it was our focus on individual liberty.  I know, you are all getting sick of hearing that come out of my mouth, but I feel the need to state it ad nauseam since it has been taken for granted for so long.  People from around the world come to America to fulfill their dreams.  Why do they do that rather than just stay in their homeland?  Because, here, one is not predestined to any particular outcome.  It has been a place of free actions and unlimited opportunities.  A place that takes pride in solving problems through individual effort rather than feeling apologetic for our accomplishments.

Seeing Mr. Obama bow indicates that he doesn’t really understand our true strength or value-add.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but his respect shown to a king makes me think he sees our position in the world as by chance rather than through our following a particular course built on individual liberty.  Unfortunately, it would explain the actions he and his peers in Congress have taken.  I find the whole thing very disturbing.

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