Hmmmmm, I can think of 2 Americans named Obama and Michelle that are arrogant. I think such a foolish statement indicates Obama doesn't really understand Americans or America, kind of like several American apologists in our country.
The US Census Bureau (
http://www.census.gov/) currently estimates America's population as being just over 306 million people. I kind of doubt Obama knows all 306 million citizens, visitors, etc. in our country so his all encompassing statement is obviously less than accurate (kind of like running for public office).
I would guess that Obama probably knows less than 10,000 people personally to the degree that he could form at least a minimum opinion of those people's degree of arrogance or not. Extrapolating an opinion from such a small sampling to indicate that all Americans are arrogant is pretty silly.
America may seem arrogant to people who don't bother to find out what Americans are made of but if you examine us closely, you'll find the reality is much more interesting and uplifting. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines arrogant as "exaggerating or disposed to exaggerate one's own worth or importance often by an overbearing manner" and lists an example of an arrogant official (Hmmmmmm
).
Such a definition doesn't accurately describe most Americans. Now if Obama had said we're optimists (like we think Obama spending a few trillion $$ will fix our economic problems), confident (as in we honestly believe in our system of government no matter how much we complain about it), hard working (as in most people who work tend to put in 40+ hours a week which is above the developed countries' average), opinionated (he would have us there but so are he and Michelle) or even just naive about the rest of the world (which most of us are to some degree or another), then Obama would have a credible statement/judgment that he could back up. I might even agree with him if he had said something like that.
However, Obama would (and still does) miss the point about what's great about America. Hint--It's not our arrogance. Show me one other country that so freely does so much for other countries around the world. Yes, I know many countries participate in the corrupt institution called the UN but the U.S. pays something like 80% of the bills. Pick any country where foreign troops, aid workers, missionaries, infrastructure workers, etc. are dying to benefit that country and I'm betting a majority of those people trying to help that country are U.S. citizens. I'm not belittling the efforts of England, Canada and certain other countries that also help all the time but the facts are the majority of people helping and paying the bills are Americans.
Corny as it might seem, Americans (and apparently a lot of legal and illegal immigrants) still believe in an American dream of opportunity where you can work, save your money, buy a house, build a better life for you and your family and have the freedom to worship as you please, vote for whom you want, associate or not with whatever groups, sports, etc. that you like and essentially live your life how you want as long as it's not breaking the laws or infringing upon another citizens' equal rights.
Obama, IMHO, missed the boat and a genuinely critical opportunity to articulate to Europeans about Americans' hope for the future, confidence, hard work and willingness to pitch in and build a=our country up and help others. Our country just elected its' first black president (definitely a milestone) and he's squandering that achievement by calling all of us arrogant.
Obama is obviously in over his head but more than that, he's a disappointment. Instead of promoting unity, positive solutions and better relations with other countries, he's pandering to hatred, dissension, discrimination and all of the things that set people back. He's sinking to a lowest common denominator with Europeans, just like his negativity about fixing our economy and is not taking positive and proactive steps to improve relations with them.
And last, but certainly not least, I find it equally amusing and disgusting that our vaunted news media can spend so much time figuring out which celebrity is sleeping around or cheating on their spouse and a lot of other useless knowledge (no offense to those involved but we really don't care to know) and then ignore our President (yes, he's still our President) making a major statement to the world that insults and misrepresents America. Thanks Obama and Michelle for making our foreign policy job harder. And thanks to our news media for falling down on the job again. [:@]
"Americans are arrogant". Obama
