Why am I even bothering!
That is like saying that before court dress went out of fashion the mere fact that for over a century and a half no U.S. Ambassador ever wore it was "simply attitude."
You don’t get it, you deliberately aren’t making any effort to get it, and you frankly don’t give a fig. If a U.S. National was so deliberately ignorant about Canadian or British tradition you doubtless would be all over them. There are many days when I’m proud of being able to span the U.S - Canadian divide, the past few days on this thread have not been among them.
Ignorance, like you don't touch the Queen. It's not supposed to happen, I learn that a 5 years of age, but it does. The big thing is that when our representatives do it ,the whole nation doesn't go off and exclaim horror. Then claims that we are the USA, so we shouldn't have to follow tradition or just plain good manners. That's the beef with what's gone on here.
Again the claim 'the POTUS doesn't have to do this, but no references are offered, just anecdotal examples, when there has been guidelines put forward by the office, the Protocol Office, that handles that exact kind of situation and says basically that it's all right to do it or it would be a good thing and so on. Maybe Obama can start a new tradition.