Ben Smith appears to be the first reporter to ask the White House why Barack Obama bowed before the King of Saudi Arabia, a violation of more than two centuries of tradition and protocol holding that American presidents never bow before royalty. The answer the White House gave Smith: " It wasn't a bow." So who you going to believe -- Barack Obama or your lying eyes? The fact that no one on in the traveling press corps even bothered to ask for an explanation as to why Obama bowed is almost as stunning as the White House's absurd denial that there was no bow to begin with. Even Think Progress (!) conceded "the fact that Obama briefly bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia." Is the Center for American Progress calling the President of the United States a liar? More here on the pathetic treatment of this from the New York Times.