America is too exceptional; and American soldiers are people too.
Updated: here’s Obama’s ‘exceptionalism’ answer:
In one sense, of course, it’s nearly vacuous. But in “threading the needle”, as someone put it, in building a principled frame within which cake may be both eaten and had, it resembles the lightning-strikes of insight familiar from psychotherapy or religion.
The Edge of the American West 
4 comments
April 5, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Sifu Tweety Fish
Dude is slick. No two ways about it.
He was actually somewhat stronger on the exceptionalism claim than I expected before watching the video. That he still manages to make it work is impressive.
April 6, 2009 at 5:51 am
son1
Completely aside from the content of what he’s saying (which I find pretty unobjectionable), what’s still impressive to me, even after all this time, is that … when you remove the natural pauses, the slight ‘ums’, etc., what you get is basically a guy extemporaneously speaking in prose.
It’s even more impressive when you read the transcript (over at James Fallows’ blog), and see it all laid out. His push-down memory stack is more than a few levels deep in the middle of the comment, but he manages to pop back up and tie everything off with a neat little bow at the end.
Is there anyone else in modern American politics who is able to speak off-the-cuff like this?
April 6, 2009 at 8:44 am
jazzbumpa
I think Bill Clinton had this ability, when he didn’t have his back to the wall.
I’m highly skeptical of the myth of American exceptionalism. IMHO, American foreign policy since WW II has been largely a disaster. Still, Obama gave an answer I don’t have much of a quibble with. I like the way he took a few seconds to gather his thoughts, then spoke coherently. (No teleprompter!) It’s a sweet relief to have a President who can field questions, off the cuff, without being a national embarrassment.
April 6, 2009 at 10:00 am
AWC
I think that’s about as good an answer as any elected official could give, outside a formal speech.
If I had the hubris to add anything to Obama’s remarks, it’d be that the US is less exceptional than it once was. I say it because many of America’s distinctive traits– mass democracy, heterogeneity, upward mobility– are now quite common in other countries.
Or as Trong Van Din of the Simpsons says: “When my family arrived in this country four months ago, we spoke no English and had no money in our pockets. Today, we own a nationwide chain of wheel-balancing centers. Where else but in America, or possibly Canada, could our family find such opportunity? That’s why, whenever I see the Stars and Stripes, I will always be reminded of that wonderful word: flag!”