You had me until the end, Tom.
Times columnist Thomas Friedman was a guest on Charlie Rose's talk show [1] on PBS on Monday, discussing President Obama's trip to India. Near the end Friedman ended his tribute to American optimism with an arbitrary attack on Fox News.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you feel as you travel around the world that the rest of the world wants America to lead, wants America to have the kind of future you're talking about?
THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Oh, at the popular level, absolutely, Charlie. You know, one of the things that I sort of learned living abroad in the Middle East for as long as I did - everyone loves to make fun of America. You know they love to make fun of America, we're so naive. We think every problem has a solution, those silly Americans. We get all a twitter about an affair between the president and an intern, you know, everyone loves to make fun of us. But, Charlie, at the end of the day? American optimism, American naivete, helps make - it really makes the world go round. And if America goes dark, if America goes adrift, that's something that touches and is felt by people all over the world. And we, America in the mind of the world is still a very, very powerful thing.
But you know, I gotta tell you, the one thing that gives me hope, and I see this more and more, a young man came to see me in my office today, with a wonderful kind of Teach for America kind of idea. I don't want to reveal his project yet because it's not out yet. But you know, he left my office and I was just sitting in the chair thinking, you know what I love about our country, Charlie? The one thing that saves us? There's always somebody who doesn't get the word. That is the greatest thing about America. There's always some young person, some inventor, and I keep meeting these people any time I travel outside of Wash-they didn't get the word that you're supposed to be depressed, you're supposed to be on your back, you're supposed to be watching Fox TV, you know, and feeling all kind of hate and venom for President Obama. You know, they just didn't get the word."
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