Fearless

Our president at Notre Dame

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sgw says: Damn He's Good

I have to admit that I was a little worried about the reception President Obama would recieve today from the crowd and Notre Dame's commencement. However I will also admit that I thought he would go the "safe" route and avoid talking about abortion in little more than a passing fashion so as to not give his critics a target. Boy was I wrong. Boy am I GLAD I was wrong. There have been quite a few issues that President Obama has dealt with lately that I felt he didn't handle in a satisfactory fashion. But today what he showed me,once again, is that he isn't afraid. He isn't scared to confront controversies that come up about him. And he isn't afraid of taking the debate public and keeping it real with his audience. Even when they may not agree with him. As I watched the speech I kept noticing the people in the crowd behind him nodding their heads. Then I noticed that I too was subtly nodding my head along to his words. When we can get to a point in this country where we don't demogogue people just because they don't agree with us we will all be better off. And his message today, highlighting how the Civil Right Act was hammered out, showed how far we can go when we adopt that stance.

Think Progress: Obama: ‘One of the biggest mistakes…is this notion you have to dumb things down for the public.’

In a 30-minute interview with Newsweek this past week, President Obama answers a wide array of questions dealing with the challenges he’s had to confront in office. The president points to his decision to send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan as the hardest thing he’s had to do so far. Obama also argues that Americans appreciate a president who is willing to candidly discuss difficult and complex problems:

But one of the things I’ve actually been encouraged by—and I learned during the campaign—was the American people, I think, not only have a toleration but also a hunger for explanation and complexity, and a willingness to acknowledge hard problems. I think one of the biggest mistakes that is made in Washington is this notion you have to dumb things down for the public.

Also during the interview, Obama defended his efforts to reach out to Iran. “I think that there is the ability of an Islamic Republic of Iran to maintain its Islamic character while, at the same time, being a member in good standing of the international community and not a threat to its neighbors. … If it doesn’t work, the fact that we have tried will strengthen our position in mobilizing the international community, and Iran will have isolated itself, as opposed to a perception that it seeks to advance that somehow it’s being victimized by a U.S. government that doesn’t respect Iran’s sovereignty.”