President Bush explains to Phillippine President Gloria Arroyo how much he appreciates the cultural and economic contributions of Filipino-Americans.
Listen for Gloria’s measured “Thank you.”
Of course, the president probably meant to make nothing more than an innocuous comment about the talent and character of one person. But shouldn’t the fact that politicians feel the need to provide anecdotal evidence of their relationships with every minority group prompt the same eye-roll we give to people who claim, “Actually, I have a lot of black friends”?
I think, incidentally, that we all do this sort of thing – feel the need to prove our experiential authority with anecdotal evidence. But why does the President feel the need to do this publicly? One would think a president — especially this one — would feel comfortable assuming he had the public’s benefit of the doubt. That we’d believe him when he says a minority group makes valuable societal contributions without needing to hear his own anecdotal evidence.
He told a European newspaper he’d think about writing a book once he’s out of office. I hope so — because maybe then we’d get some insight into what in the world he’s thinking.
-BB
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