A while back I discussed the unwitting lesson that some of President Obama’s cheerleaders in the media and academia provide in how to be mevatel oneself before true greatness. Another worthwhile lesson from the same group is the almost limitless capacity we have to be dan l’kaf zchus to see even the most glaring flaws of those we adore through a positive lens.
Example One courtesy of Los Angeles Times writer Meghan Daum:
Apparently a lot of people consider President Barack Obama to be bumblingly inarticulate. “The guy can’t talk his way out of a paper bag!” a reader wrote to me recently.… It’s not just my readers nor is it exclusively conservatives who hold this view.… Admittedly the president is given to a lot of pauses “uhs” and sputtering starts to his sentences
But consider this: It’s not that Obama can’t speak clearly. It’s that he employs the intellectual stammer. Not to be confused with a stutter … the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can’t keep up. The stammer is commonly found among university professors … and public thinkers….
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