Brutally honest points to an interesting statement by President Barack Hussein Obama:
We are putting the full force of the White House and the State Department to make sure that not only is this is a successful games but that visitors from all around the world feel welcome, and I think that, you know, over the last several years sometimes sometimes, uh, that … that fundamental truth about the United States has been lost, one of the legacies I think of … of this Olympic Games in Chicago would be a restoration of that understanding of … of what the United States is all about, and the United States’ recognition of how we are linked to the world.
Observe the presupposition that foreigners fear that America is full of racists who might attack them, were it not for the vigorous force of the US government protecting people from evil and violent American citizens.
And it’s a terrible sales pitch.
It would be a very good sales pitch if white male Americans were actually demonic and hateful, and this fact was widely believed, so widely believed that there was no point in denying it or disagreeing with it.
A kinder interpretation of his words is that airport security has been driving people up the wall, and that he is promising to reduce airport security, or at least make it somewhat less crazy, but this would involve reducing the power of the state over its subjects, which does not sound much like Obama, and recognizing that the state is doing bad things to its subjects, which does not sound much like Obama. Further, that kinder interpretation is a very strange thing to mention in a sales pitch – “Hey, I know we suck, but I will try to suck not quite as much”.
To say “I know someone else sucks, but we are going to make it right” is still a dreadful sales pitch, but something one is more likely to slip into doing.