What Sarah Palin had in common with that TV show 'The Prisoner'

A presidential campaign can be a disorienting thing, especially for a novice like Sarah Palin, who was plucked from the Alaska governor’s mansion and tossed onto the national stage with very little seasoning and preparation. The pressures on her were immense, as she recounts in "Going Rogue: An American Life.”

In fact, it occurred to us as we were reading the book today that in some ways, her version of the campaign can be likened to the great 1960s British TV show “The Prisoner” (which has just been remade for American TV). In “The Prisoner,” a man called No. 6 is trapped in “The Village” and has no idea why he is there or where he is. Under constant surveillance, each time he tries to escape, he is subsumed by a giant white ball and returned to his cottage.

Palin recounts in her book that she didn’t understand the rules of the campaign but was expected to follow them. She was constantly told by high-level campaign staffers that someplace called “headquarters” was overruling her or issuing commands about what she could and could not do. Headquarters’ wishes were relayed to her by McCain chief strategist Steve Schmidt and campaign spokeswoman Nicole Wallace.

“The Schmidt-Wallace tag team,” she writes, “would continually invoke the all-powerful ‘headquarters,’ a mysterious, faraway entity whose exact identity and location were never fully explained. By the end of the campaign, my VP teammates and I would look at each other and say, ‘Who is headquarters?’” Toward the end of the campaign, Palin and her staff used air quotes when they uttered the h-word.

“I had visited the physical headquarters once in Washington, D.C., and met amazing volunteers working round the clock for the GOP ticket,” she writes. “But somehow I must never have met the tight inner circle of shot callers."

At one point, during preparation for her debate with Democratic VP nominee, Joe Biden, Schmidt and McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis sat her down. “Suddenly, I felt I like I was on thin ice.”

“Schmidt leveled his eyes at me. ‘We don’t have the money Obama does and the numbers don’t look good. We’ve got to change things up….So headquarters is flying in a nutritionist.”

Palin writes that she thought that was a splendid idea for Schmidt and his fellow staffers, whose “chain-smoking, junk-food-packing, recirculated-air-breathing habits were probably catching up to them.”

“No, it’s for you,” Schmidt told her. “You’ve got to get off the Atkins diet.” 

Only one problem: She wasn't on the Atkins diet, she writes.

“I’m a forty-four-year-old, healthy, athletic woman raising five kids and governing a large state, I thought as his words faded into a background buzz. Sir, I don’t really know you yet. But you’ve told me how to dress, what to say, who to talk to, a lot of people NOT to talk to, who my heroes are supposed to be, and we’re STILL losing. Now you’re going to tell me what to eat?

“I suppose if headquarters had flown in a nutritionist, I would’ve listened to what he or she had to say. But as with much of what headquarters said, it never happened.”

--Robin Abcarian

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Oprah's Sarah Palin interview incites 'perky' reactions

Sarah Palin's rogue book tour made a pre-taped stop in Chicago today for the former Alaska governor's much-hyped appearance on "Oprah."

Palin dropped some doggone fascinating tidbits during the interview. She said she has no plans to run for president in 2012. Well, actually she said it's "not on my radar," which is Politician for "It might be over the horizon."

That might ease the worries of conspiracy theorists convinced that the adorable political celebrity could ring in the 2012 apocalypse. On second thought, no, it won't convince the "anti-" crowd of anything.

Oprah Winfrey, who supported her hometown senator, Barack Obama, in the election, questioned Palin about her unintentionally hilarious interviews with Katie Couric. Palin refused to refer to Couric by name, instead calling her "the perky one." Gosh!

Don't worry, plenty more to come after the book's official release tomorrow. There's a five-part Barbara Walters chat on ABC and a long radio conversation with Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern.

As entertaining as the Oprah chat was, we also like to watch the comments from fans and haters. Did Oprah go too easy on Palin? Some said, You betcha. But others admitted that Palin is starting to grow on them.

We grabbed some of the best we found on Twitter. Here they are (unedited):

Good news: Obama creates 30 new jobs in one congressional district. Bad news: No such district

Chicago politics, where voting is such a revered civic duty that people do it even after they're dead, cold, stiff, stuffed, boxed and buried beneath the permafrost for years, has now come to D.C. with the Obama administration.

This afternoon comes the most encouraging economic news, courtesy of our keen-eyed buddy Rick Klein over at ABC, that the Obama administration's $787-billion economic stimulus has, for example, thankfully created 30 new jobs in a little-known rural corner of Arizona at a cost to American taxpayers of only $761,420.

That works out to only $25,380.67 spent to create each individual job.

Seems like a lot per slot, but those 30 folks must be happy to be employed again and paying taxes.

This will be a real feather in the cap of Vice President Joe Biden, who's been left behind and assigned by the ever-campaigning president to monitor the stimulus plan, its spending and effectiveness moving into the crucial midterm elections of 2010. Might the Democrats snatch that House seat?

So the people of that 15th Congressional District in staunchly Republican Arizona should be pretty happy about this.

Trouble is, there is no 15th Congressional District in Arizona. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. Doesn't exist. Not in Arizona. Not even on paper at the Democratic National Committee. There are only eight. Period.

But the administration's much-vaunted recovery.gov website reported these jobs as being created there.

Could well be a computer glitch. Lord knows humans would never make such a dumb, misleading mistake, even in politics.

But then the trouble is that just months after grandly unveiling the recovery.gov website to showcase its economic prowess and tech-savvy, the Obama administration just spent 18 million additional taxpayer dollars to redesign the still new website.

And that site proudly also reported nonexistent new stimulus spending not just in Arizona but other states across the country.

So that looks to have worked pretty well, at least if you're counting computer designer jobs created.

Anyway, how do you think the 15th will vote next year?

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Josua Roberts / Bloomberg News

In her own words: Palin accuses McCain's staff of ruining her image in Alaska

We finally have our hands on a copy of "Going Rogue: An American Life" and for those interested in the battle royal that Sarah Palin fought with the campaign staff of her Republican presidential running mate, Sen. John McCain, there are juicy details.

She blames McCain's staffers, particularly his campaign manager Steve Schmidt, for ruining her reputation in Alaska.

In one anecdote, she reveals how she was admonished after trying to maintain the same easy relationship with Alaska radio hosts that she had enjoyed as governor. She learned that the hard way one day with McCain on his campaign bus.

"Many reporters had my personal cell phone number and I had theirs," she writes. "That's the way we operated. It helped us govern. So as the campaign bus barreled down a freeway somewhere in the middle of America, I punched up KWHL on speed dial.

"'Hey Bob, it's Sarah?'

"'Governor!' Bob said. 'Good to hear from you! Finally!'

"'Hey, I wanted to touch base and I've got a true American hero sitting right here with me, and you should feel honored to hear him say hello. I'm going to put him on the line so he can say hi to Alaska."

That did not go over well with McCain staffers who told Palin's staff, "Don't ever let her do that again."

Her response: "Oops.. I suppose my handing John the phone with a radio host on the other end could be considered breaking their proper protocol...[but] it didn't seem particularly improper, especially for a man whose campaign bus was called the 'Straight Talk Express.' "

She was pretty sure McCain wasn't bothered, "But the lectures from on high began about my talking to the media, especially the Alaska media."

McCain campaign manager Schmidt, who is the all-around Bad Guy in Palin's book puts it simply to her: "Alaska has three electoral votes. You don't need to contact the Alaska media again."

Palin says her top aide, Meghan Stapleton, begged McCain's staff to let Palin speak with Alaska reporters who had traveled to the Lower 48 to report on their governor. Palin figured that she would benefit if the national media picked up stories written by reporters "who knew me and had been reporting on me for years. Maybe that would help counter the spin of so many other stories."

It was not to be. After one campaign event, she tried to break away to speak with an Anchorage reporter, but a campaign handler grabbed her by the elbow and hustled her away. "It was not a respectful thing to do," she writes. Later, the reporter wrapped up his piece this way: "And the Sarah Palin we once knew, is gone."

It's probably wishful thinking on Palin's part that speaking to Alaska reporters would have softened her image, given that around the same time she would accuse Barack Obama of "palling around" with terrorists.

But the Alaska press, she writes, "decided I was ignoring them and maybe thinking I'd grown too big for my britches."

-- Robin Abcarian

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Photo: Palin with McCain at a Michigan rally, September 2008. Credit: Jeff Kowalsky / European Pressphoto Agency

President Obama: 'I have never used Twitter'

More than 2.6 million people follow President Obama on Twitter -- or so they thought. The president told a youth audience in Shanghai on Sunday that he has never used Twitter.

The @BarackObama Twitter account was a wildly successful campaign tool in Obama's run-up to the presidency last year, which staffers used to promote their candidate. Since being elected, the account is believed to have been taken over by the Democratic National Committee.

“I have never used Twitter, but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting Internet access," Obama said during the town hall. "My thumbs are too clumsy to type in things on the phone."

The latter statement elicited laughs from the crowd. Perhaps because Twitter is not solely a phone application. Or maybe some recall this photo (right) from the campaign showing Obama's professed tech-savviness.

But we should point out that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama's opponent in the election, has somehow managed to write cohesive sentences on his  Twitter page here using his war-mangled fingers -- well, either that or a staffer relays his tweets for him.

Ahh! We don't know anymore!

Now knowing that the tweets don't actually come from Obama himself, followers have expressed disappointment. "I have never used" was a trending topic on Twitter this morning (meaning many people tweeted messages with the phrase) as users reacted to the news.

"Humbled," which was @BarackObama's one-word reaction to news of being selected as a Nobel Peace Prize winner, carries a lot less weight with the new knowledge. Who's humbled? Some rep at the DNC?

The White House maintains its own Twitter profile. The page, @WhiteHouse, has gained significant popularity of its own, with 1.5 million followers, in a relatively short amount of time.

But Obama -- err, whoever is typing messages under his guise -- still reaches a million more people.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times; Associated Press (Candidate Obama using his clumsy thumbs pretty deftly on his beloved BlackBerry).

Sarah Palin's steamy passage about husband Todd, plus surprisingly kind words about Hillary Clinton

It's not the typical kind of passage for a political memoir. But hey, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Pallin isn't the typical kind of politician.

Amid rumors that Palin and her husband Todd, known as Alaska's "First Dude," were getting a divorce, the governor recounts this moment in her odyssey. If it reads like a Harlequin novel, viewer discretion advised.

“That day in sunny Texas when the divorce rumors were rampant in the tabloids, I watched Todd, tanned and shirtless, take the baby from my arms and walk him back to the ranch house so Trig could nap while I made calls,” she writes in "Going Rogue," the much-publicized memoir out Tuesday. "Seeing Todd’s blue eyes smiling, I chuckled. ‘Dang,’ I thought. ‘Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd?’”

Palin's book, "Going Rogue," is being released Tuesday with a huge publicity drum roll -- beginning with today's interview with Oprah Winfrey  -- and considerable speculation about whether the publicity will help Palin resurrect her political career.

In the meantime, various quotations are leaking out. One of the most intriguing is the Republican vice presidential candidate's view of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then battling Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

From the book: "Should Secretary Clinton and I ever sit down over a cup of coffee, I know that we will fundamentally disagree on many issues, but my hat is off to her hard work on the 2008 campaign trail. …[A] lot of her supporters think she proved what Margaret Thatcher proclaimed: 'If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.' "

Here's Clinton's response.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo Credit: Gatty Images

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What's real price tag on war in Afghanistan?

The casualties are sobering --  nearly 1,500 deaths to date among U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

So are the stakes -- the prospect of a Taliban resurgence that likely would reverse recent gains for women and girls and the destabilization of neighboring Pakistan, with its nuclear weapons and Al Qaeda cells.

But as President Obama weighs a decision on whether to deploy more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, a new front in the debate is emerging in Washington -- the financial costs.

The White House Budget Office estimates that it will cost about $1 million for each additional soldier sent to Afghanistan. So, a surge of 30,000 to 40,000 troops -- which is what Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is recommending -- would add $30 billion to $40 billion a year to the deficit.

At the Pentagon, the comptroller disagrees, estimating the cost of deploying and maintaining one soldier in Afghanistan for a full year  at $500,000. So, bottom line would be $15 billion to $20 billion.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama recently made reference to the costs as one of the factors in his decision. In Japan on Friday, on the first stop of his eight-day visit to Asia, Obama said he was taking his time to deliberate because he wanted to make sure that "when I send young men and women into war, and I devote billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money, that it's making us safer." With costs and security in mind, he added, "our goal here ultimately has to be for the Afghan people to be able to be in a position to provide their own security. ...The United States cannot be engaged in an open-ended commitment."

An escalation in military spending could put Obama in the awkward position of winning Republican votes for the budget while losing Democratic ones for the policy. And a drain on the nation's bottom line also could imperil domestic programs favored by the White House.

A new surge, said Wisconsin Democrat David Obey, would "drain the spirit of the country ... as well as drain the U.S. Treasury, it would devour virtually any other priorities that the president or anyone in Congress had."

The added red ink is unlikely to make the decision any easier -- either for Obama or the public.

"It reflects the political climate," Georgetown University military analyst Christine Fair told Reuters. "The leadership is confused, we're broke, and most Americans don't know why we're there."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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Rogue rage: Team McCain strikes back at Palin

Arizona Sen. John McCain has been a gentleman abut the whole thing, artfully dodging questions, urging his staffers to hold their tongues too.

But for many of the top political names who worked on McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, "Going Rogue," by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is just too much to take quietly.

In the book, Palin attacks campaign manager Steve Schmidt for silencing her. She accuses communications aide Nicolle Wallace of forcing designer clothes on her and cajoling her into doing that disastrous interview with CBS' Katie Couric out of pity for the anchor's low ratings. She complains that the McCain campaign charged her $50K for her own vetting.

Schmidt calls Palin's memoir "total fiction." He added: "Why is the bald guy always the villain?"

As for the allegation about Wallace, former campaign manager Mark Salter told Politico that was unlikely.  Wallace "did not decide which interview requests the candidates would accept," Salter said. "Nor was she tasked with securing the candidates’ agreement." Wallace said the account was "totally fabricated."

As for the vetting accusation, campaign counsel Trevor Potter told the Atlantic, "I can confirm that she was not billed for any vetting costs by the campaign."

Using the book for "petty and pathetic" score-settling, said former McCain strategist John Weaver, belittles Palin's own stature.

"Sarah Palin reminds me of Jimmy Stewart in the movie 'Harvey,' complete with imaginary conversations," he said. " The score-settling by someone who wants to be considered a serious national player is petty and pathetic. The problem wasn't who her interview was with, the problem was her interview," he added.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Brian Adams / Runner's World

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Click here to get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. And we're also over here on Facebook.

Sarah Palin back on the trail: What to watch for

 

Well, it looks like these ladies got the memo about Blue Monday.

This is Barbara Walters of ABC, shown here on the right, posing with the latest celebrity she's interviewed in her very long, diligent career of interviewing famous people about things we didn't know we wanted to know about them. Like their favorite tree, for example.

Walters is very good at it. Such conversations powered by public curiosity have proved addictive to Americans in a long tradition of popular American journalism since Dolley Madison captured the public's fascination as first lady for not one, but two, presidents -- her actual husband, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, a widower who in those days couldn't really bring his black mistress in as White House hostess.

Anyway, about the latest, biggest political celebrity ever, Walters might happen to mention some of her favorite moments with Palin every few minutes on "The View" this week, which also happens to be on ABC.

It's a match made in PR heaven: A politician whose supporters can't wait to see....

Text of Obama's town hall -- in China (Not a word on healthcare)

President Obama walked a tightrope during his unusual-for-China town hall meeting with university students in Shanghai.

As an official guest in the country, he didn't want to appear pushy while being pushy about human rights and Internet censorship. Pointing out the long ties between the two countries, dating back to a trading ship dispatched to China by President No. 1, President No. 44 acknowledged there had been some rough waters in the relationship.

But he declared the United States has no interest in containing a rapidly expanding China. He then said that although the United States had implemented its own founding human rights goals imperfectly at times, it would also not hesitate to speak out in favor of such rights and against oppression anywhere in the world.

He also appealed for Chinese help in combating global warming, saying that while the U.S. emitted the most greenhouse gases, China is the faster-growing. And nothing will get done, he maintained, without the two cooperating.

Obama said that while he didn't always appreciate the volume of criticism that comes his way due to modern technology, he opposed censorship in the United States, China (hint, hint) or anywhere. He said his two daughters could go on a computer in their White House rooms and learn about Shanghai.

In fact, although TV coverage of the town hall was restricted to Shanghai, the Obama girls -- and any Chinese with Internet access -- could have watched it live-streaming on the White House website.

In one shocking personal revelation, Obama, who was famed for his BlackBerry-ness and being so tech-savvy during the long presidential campaign (as opposed to you-know-who, the clumsy, unhip old-timer from Arizona), admitted publicly for the first time that he has never Twittered. Ever. Not once. Obama said he has too clumsy thumbs to do that on a phone.

Oops. Those keys on his famous and beloved BlackBerry aren't all that immense. (See photo below) And Twitter is not just a phone device.

You-know-who, on the other hand, sends regular Tweets several times a day to his nearly 1.6 million Twitter followers.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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President Obama at a Shanghai town hall with students, as provided by the White House
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good afternoon. It is a great honor for me to be here in Shanghai, and to have this opportunity to speak with all of you. I'd like to thank Fudan University's President Yang for his hospitality and his gracious welcome.  I'd also like to thank our outstanding Ambassador, Jon Huntsman, who exemplifies the deep ties and respect between our nations. I don't know what he said, but I hope it was good.  (Laughter.) 

What I'd like to do is to make some opening comments, and then what I'm really looking forward to doing is taking questions, not only from students who are in the audience, but also we've received questions online, which will be asked by some of the students who are here in the audience, as well as by Ambassador Huntsman.  And I am very sorry that my Chinese is not as good as your English, but I am looking forward to this chance to have a dialogue.

This is my first time traveling to China, and I'm excited to see this majestic country. Here, in Shanghai, we see the growth that has caught the attention of the world -- the soaring skyscrapers, the bustling streets and entrepreneurial activity.  And just as I'm impressed by these signs of China's journey to the 21st century, I'm eager to see those ancient places that speak to us from China's distant past. 

Tomorrow and the next day I hope to have a chance when I'm in Beijing to see the majesty.....

Sunday shows: H. Clinton, Giuliani, Dunn, Duncan

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ABC's George Will and PBS' Gwen Ifill.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: ex-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn and Obama Budget Director Peter Orszag.

CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Former CIA officer Reuel Gerecht, Claremont McKenna College's Minxin Pei, Harvard's Roderick MacFarquhar and "The Age of the Unthinkable" author Joshua Cooper Ramo.

CNN State of the Union with John King: Obama advisor David Axelrod, Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) and CNN's William Bennett and Donna Brazile.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Giuliani and Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Clinton, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Related item:

Face the Nation wins a crucial demographic

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: EPA (Clinton in the Philippines)

How low will he go? Obama gives Japan's Emperor Akihito a wow bow (Updates with videos, pic)

(New UPDATE: Monday 5:02 p.m. OK, it's not funny if you work at the White House. But for everybody else a new video at the bottom of this post will provide some chuckles about how the rest of the world chooses to greet the Japanese Emperor. Hint: It's different than President Obama.)

(UPDATES: 12:22 p.m. Saturday. A brief news video has been added below, showing the greeting in this photograph. Contrary to some claims, the video shows no reciprocal bow by the emperor, who traditionally bows to no one. And we've added a file photo from 2007 of Vice President Dick Cheney greeting the Japanese Emperor at the same residence in a different fashion.)

How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty?

This photo will get Democrat President Obama a lot of approving nods in Japan this weekend, especially among the older generation of Japanese who still pay attention to the royal family living in its downtown castle. Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior.

To some in the United States, however, an upright handshake might have looked better. (See Cheney-Akihito photo, right).

Remember Michelle Obama casually patting Britain's Queen Elizabeth on the back during their Buckingham Palace visit? America's royalty tends to make movies and get bad reviews and lots of money as a sign of respect.

Obama could receive some frowns back home as he did for his not-quite-this-low-or-maybe-about-the-same-bow to the Saudi king not so long ago. (See photo here)

How times change under Democratic presidents.

Back in 1994 when President Bill Clinton appeared to maybe perhaps almost start to bow to Akihito at a White House encounter, U.S. officials rushed to deny it was any such a thing. And the N.Y. Times chronicled the comedic drama here.

Akihito, who turns 76 next month, is the eldest son and fifth child of Emperor Showa, the name given to an emperor and his reign after his death.

Emperor Showa is better known abroad by the life name of Hirohito. He became emperor in 1925 and died in 1989, the longest historically-known rule of the nation's 125 emperors.

Hirohito presided over his nation's growth from an undeveloped agrarian economy into the expansionist military power and ally of Nazi Germany of the 1930's.

And, later, Japan became a global economic giant. Hirohito, along with Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who authorized the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, were much reviled abroad during World War II.

Historically, debate has simmered over how much of a political puppet Hirohito was to the country's military before and during the war.

Even after Democratic President Harry Truman ordered the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945, there were strong forces within Japan that wanted to continue to fight the Americans in the spirit of kamikaze suicide pilots.

But Akihito's father went on national radio, the first time his subjects had ever heard Hirohito's voice, and without using the inflammatory word "surrender," pronounced that the country must "accept the unacceptable." It did.

As the conquering Allied general and then presiding officer of the U.S. occupation, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, decided to allow Japan to keep its emperor as a ceremonial unifying institution within a nascent democracy.

Tojo, on the other hand, was hanged.

MacArthur treated Emperor Hirohito respectfully but, as his body language in this black and white postwar photo demonstrates, was not particularly deferential. 

(But then MacArthur was not known as a particularly deferential person, as Truman discovered just before firing him later. But that's another war.)

Akihito was born during Japan's conquering of China and was evacuated during the devastating American fire-bombing of Tokyo, which was built largely of wood in those days.

The future emperor learned English during the U.S. occupation, but, inexplicably, his father ordered that his oldest boy not receive an Army commission as previous imperial heirs always had.

Akihito assumed the throne on Jan. 7, 1989. Within weeks he began a series of formal expressions of remorse to Asian countries for Japan's actions during his....

...father's reign. In 2003, he underwent surgery for prostate cancer.

In 1959, Akihito married Michiko Shoda, the first commoner allowed to enter the Japanese royal family. That was two years before the birth of Akihito's future presidential guest, Barack Obama.

Joe Biden was already 17 by then. But he wasn't a senator.

(UPDATE: Here's a new video assembled by some clever College Republicans at the University of Connecticut. It's even got music and requires no explanation.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty; David Bohrer / White House (Vice President Dick Cheney is received by Emperor Akihito somewhat differently in 2007); Reuters (Obama bows to the king of Saudi Arabia earlier this year); U.S. Army Archives (Gen. Douglas MacArthur not bowing to Emperor Hirohito after World War II).