If you have about three minutes, watch the video clip here at CNN Political Ticker and tell me whether you think this is an adequate recovery by Michelle Obama from her gaffe of saying earlier this week that "For the first time" she is "proud of" her country.
I think it's a partial recovery, but not enough to dispel the doubts Michelle Obama created for herself.
What I conclude from the video is that Michelle Obama can say the appropriate words, at least half-way convincingly. I also conclude that, after realizing the fallout from her words and after having had her opportunities pointed out to her, Michelle Obama is capable of admitting that she has had opportunities in America that do reflect rather well on the country.
In the interview clip, Michelle Obama makes the obligatory statement that she loves her country and acknowledges the educational opportunities she and her husband have had thanks to this country, but she also uses the word "possibilities" three times to try to explain how she likes America.
Possibilities? That's condemning with faint praise.
America is not just "possibilities" that have yet to be realized.
America is a dream come true. It is a dream long since realized and still going strong.
America has been delivering real freedom, real economic opportunity, real prosperity and more for a long, long time.
Just ask Bill Gates. Just ask Colin Powell. Just ask America's astronauts, from Neil Armstrong to the latest shuttle crew.
Ask the people of France, whom American soldiers fought and died to free. Ask the people of Afghanistan who no longer witness regular, arbitrary executions at soccer stadiums. Ask the people of Iraq. Ask the people of Japan, who were conquered after they attacked America, but then freed to govern themselves in a democracy -- and who are living in great economic prosperity today as a result.
Just ask the millions of men and women who have fled to America from countries all around the world. Why do you suppose that is? For the possibilities of America, or for its reality?
Just ask tsunami victims halfway around the world who were sent billions of dollars in aid from America. Just ask men and women and children in Africa who are alive today thanks to aid from the United States of America. Were they saved by America's possibilities?
Just ask the millions of Americans who are alive today thanks to the outstanding quality of medical care that America provides to its own people, from vaccinations to open heart surgery to innovative cancer treatments.
The list goes on and on. I could point to a thousand corners of America, or corners of the world, touched beneficently by America. Almost everywhere you look, there is another miracle in progress. The computer that sits on your desk or in your lap or in your hand right now -- another economic miracle owed largely if not exclusively to America.
America is not just "possibilities." It is already a dream come true. If you don't agree with that much, Ms. Obama, then I'm not sure you really do understand the "possibilities" of America, nor the source from which they spring.
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