Poor word choices

This morning, I heard a small excerpt of Obama’s speech to the Indian Parliament. The snippet that CBS Radio chose to air was Obama telling the Indians that they were no longer “emerging” but that they had “emerged”. To me, this seemed like an incredibly condescending thing for the president to say. Instead of telling the Indians something positive that recognizes their position in the world, Obama sets himself up as the arbiter of who has “emerged”. It is as if getting Obama’s blessing is a goal in itself. Obama did not choose his words wisely.
Another member of the poor word choice club is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He was quoted in the New York Post as telling a foreign audience that the American people had elected people to congress who we cannot be sure if they know how to read and write. I understand that Bloomberg may be angry that his liberal friends got slaughtered in the elections, but it is a terrible choice of words to attack the victors as illiterates while in a foreign country. Some of his audience may actually believe him. Bloomberg did not choose his words wisely.
Still another prize for poor choice of words goes to the AP. This morning, it put out an article with the headline that the Republicans were trying to repair their tattered image. The article then discusses how the image of the Republican is in terrible shape and how hard it will be for the Republicans to repair it. Given that the Republicans just got a huge majority of the country to vote for them, this article seems more than a bit off the mark. No one says that the image of the GOP is perfect, but to write an article that ignores last week’s historic victory makes no sense. The AP did not choose its words wisely.