Cherry-picking alert: Obama’s Middle East speech
As President Obama ends his Middle East visit, the partisan cherry-pickers are out in full-force picking the “cherries” from his speech that support their pre-existing bias (for or against), ignoring the full meaning of his words. I suspect it won’t be long until they start pelting each other with the cherry pits (and get ratings while we watch the fracas).
A speech that lasted almost an hour cannot be understood in a sentence or a paragraph.
As Obama says in his speech “…I am convinced that to make progress, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors. There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other, to learn from each other, to respect one another and to seek common ground.”
So swing those doors wide open. A discussion between liberal and conservative Americans about what the President has just said must be had, but the discussion must be grounded in an awareness of the whole speech.
It simply cannot be done in a way that honors the ideals of America by picking cherries.
Add comment June 4th, 2009
