The Weekly Riot: Barack O'Bunyan?

As a kid one of my favorite yarns was the tale of the great American woodsmen Paul Bunyan. Legend has it that Bunyan was dropped in at birth by not one, but three of the storks that deliver infant surprises into the arms of loving moms and dads. He grew so big and so strong, so innately woodsmen that at the mere age of seven months Bunyan sawed the legs off of his parents bed as they slept one night. As a man Bunyan towered over the trees of the forest. At twenty five feet tall giant Paul and his sidekick Babe the mighty blue Ox (who was proportionately as big as Bunyan himself) created myth and legend with every adventure they undertook. One such legend has Bunyan dragging his axe behind him as he strolled across the state of Arizona leaving behind what we now know as the Grand Canyon in the track of the mighty double blade axe. In another tale the woodsman stacks rocks to extinguish a campfire one morning and that pile of boulders would later become known as Mount Hood. Perhaps one of Bunyan's greatest feats was digging a simple watering hole for benevolent Babe to drink from. This simple watering hole can still be visited in the form of one of America's Great Lakes.


Though these yarns are nothing more than wives tales and children’s bedtime stories I found myself revisiting them this week at the ripe old age of 27. I was more than a little bit amused Wednesday, when amid the uproar over President Obama bowing before the King of Saudi Arabia a memo was leaked from the White House in the President's defense. Ben Smith's Blog on the Politico.com released the statement from an "Anonymous" White House aide.  "It wasn't a bow. He (President Obama) grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," said the aide. I literally woke my wife laughing out loud Wednesday night while recounting this portion of the day’s events. I could just picture President O'Bunyan in the 1958 Disney Cartoon, towering over the decrepit capitalist institutions of the G-20 summit, axe in hand, singing " With my double blade axe and my Homdale boots I go where the timbers tall. When there's work to be done don't mess around just sing right up for all." The other puny members of the once great G-20 institution then lovingly chime in " Heeee's O....O'Bunyan.... he's sixty three axe handles high high with his feet on the ground and his head in the sky its Ooooo....O'Bunyannnn." 

The anonymous aide's fairy tale makes sense when you look at it this way. This version makes it easy to reconcile the towering Obama bending to a 90 degree angle to grasp the hand of the comparatively tiny, haughty little king. The King's silly advisers had left the royal Arabian magic carpet in his highness' limousine or else Abdullah the Great would have flown up to stare at the  American President eye to eye. I want to be clear where I am going with this. I am not suggesting fealty, or religious affiliation, or even mutual world vision had anything to do with the bow like some have suggested. I think such talk is folly and without evidence completely counterproductive. What I am saying is we all saw the same video that the anonymous Obama aide saw. And unless Obama aides have a sixth sense which intertwines vision of a man's ego with actual physical vision of the man himself then the 6 foot 2 Obama most certainly did not have to reach down 3 feet to the 6ft Saudi King's hand in order to perform a warm, respectful embrace. It would have served the Obama administration, and quite frankly the United States of America, better for the President's aides to have simply said that the president believes humility, not swagger and bluster, is the best way to achieve the nation's diplomatic goals. Anything else is quite literally laughable and every bit as fairy tale as Paul Bunyan himself. To be honest though, I find it quite fun to picture Joe Biden as a big blue ox.  

P.H. Rolen is the Chairman of Liberty for All USA.com and the Author of "Liberty for All: A Patriot's Primer" (release date June 09). He is a guest editor for NowPublic.com and his work has been featured in the World Net Daily Commentary page and Heartland Institute's Infotech and Telecom Newsletter. He writes from beautiful Montana where he is involved with the re-election campaign of U.S. Congressman Denny Rehberg.