Jeffrey Feldman: On the Joy of Not Cringing at Our President

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



Jeffrey Feldman
Posted February 19, 2009 | 05:45 PM (EST)
On the Joy of Not Cringing at Our President


A funny thing happened as I was watching President Obama's press conference with Prime Minister Harper in Ottawa: I did not cringe with embarrassment.

It may seem like an odd admission at first. After all, everybody knows by now that Obama is comfortable on the public stage--at ease with teleprompter and off-the-cuff alike--and expert at framing key concepts to shape and lead a pragmatic debate.

And yet, after 8 years of pulling my hair out in large clumps each time George W. Bush stood at a press conference with another world leader, I feel a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders by the mere fact that Obama was not embarrassing. Policy positions aside: what a relief to not feel utterly humiliated as a citizen after watching our Commander in Chief take the foreign stage.

I know others felt the same way.

For example, I noticed at the Ottawa press conference that nobody in the room stood up, shouted something threatening, and then threw their shoes at our president. Based on my anthropological expertise of cross-cultural behavior, I can verify with relative certainty that not throwing shoes at a world leader is a universal sign of not being overcome with frustration and annoyance. I also noticed that Obama did not butcher any words in the English language, resulting in many people not laughing at him and not telling jokes depicting him as a fool. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/on-the-joy-of-not-cringin_b_168374.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. This is SO TRUE. It's been eight L O N G years.

[malaise]

2. I'll never agree with Pres Obama's foreign policy

but it's a pleasure listening to him.