Former presidential candidate and successful CEO Herman Cain participated in a jobs forum at the University of Michigan last week. During his presentation, Cain told several hundred students that they'll enjoy at least one significant advantage when the enter the job market, triggering an interesting response from a handful of hecklers:
Cain: "This is the greatest country in the world."
Students: "Not," "It's not!"
The rest of the audience gasped, booed, and a few chanted "U-S-A." Cain then launched into an epic impromptu monologue about the greatness of America -- her liberties, her prosperity, her military strength, and her opportunities -- bringing the crowd to its feet. Pure awesome:
"If this is not the greatest country in the world, leave!"
For more data and perspective on America's singular exceptionalism on the landscape of world history, read this, this, this and this. It's also interesting to note which end of our domestic political spectrum spends the most energy informing their fellow Americans that our nation really isn't all that great: Entitled undergraduates (see above), the ranting, fictional "news" anchors, as imagined by Hollywood, sanctimonious blowhards and fawning Sinophiles at the New York Times, and, at times, even the President of the United States. I can think of no more eloquent recent paean to America's exceptional greatness than Condoleezza Rice's address at the Republican National Convention (17:25 for a highlight):
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