Lee Geiger

Guys are too concerned with being right, instead of getting it right.

Colin Cowherd

Last week, The New York Times published an interview by columnist Thomas Friedman with President Obama discussing the latest agreement with Iran. The president said something midway through the interview that caught my attention:

“You know, I have a lot of differences with Ronald Reagan, but where I completely admire him was his recognition that if you were able to verify an agreement that (was negotiated) with the evil empire that was hell-bent on our destruction and was a far greater threat to us than Iran will ever be, then it would be worth doing.”

President Obama later said:

“I had a lot of disagreements with Richard Nixon, but he understood there was the prospect, the possibility, that China would take a different path. You test these things, and as long as we are preserving our security capacity…that is a risk we have to take. It is a practical, common-sense position.”

Time out. Did I just hear a Democratic president say he applied the same strategic logic with Iran that was employed previously by two Republican presidents to approach the Soviet Union and China? What in the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is going on here?

President Obama’s recognition that people labeled as “Republican“ could indeed add value to our society probably came as a shock to some people. Given the binary world we seem to live in nowadays, where if you’re not with something you must be against it, I’m surprised every registered Democrat didn’t turn away from MSNBC and take to the streets to hang “their president” in effigy. Blasphemy, after all, has become the official religion of the Twittersphere.

From where I sit, Americans has been brainwashed over the past couple of decades to believe they have to pick one political party. If I’m Republican, I must hate Democrats. If I like Gore, I must hate Bush. If I vote for Trump over Clinton, I have to like everything about The Donald and hate everything about Hilz (I know, bad example). The social media revolution has granted every member of the mob a screeching voice, and all too often the energy exerted turns into a negative firestorm of Biblical proportions.

Buy why can’t I like qualities of both? Just because I like Tom Brady doesn’t mean I hate Peyton Manning. Aren’t we the generation of choices? Can’t I like the SEC and the Pac-12? Blondes and brunettes? Can’t I drink both Coke and Pepsi?

When it comes to political leanings, I like to describe myself as a social liberal and a fiscal conservative, which means I’m all for giving people a helping hand just so long as I don’t have to pay for it. I agree it’s a bit of a copout, but that’s how I’m wired. I’m also a registered Republican, which is as rare to find in the San Francisco Bay Area as a thousand dollar a month studio. Rarer still is the political topic that gets my blood boiling, an issue that makes me want to take my place on a soapbox screaming to be heard. I’m more interested in observing the political process than judging the rightness or wrongness of an actual decision. My personal desire to spectate instead of gladiate frustrates the bejesus out of my liberal friends and neighbors, many of whom measure their daily joy in life by how many raging debates they can initiate. My psyche can handle only a certain amount of stress, and throughout my life I’ve chosen to fill it with more ESPN than C-Span. Besides, regardless of who is elected or what world-changing decision is made, life will go on. It always has.

That being said, though I don’t always agree with him, I respect President Obama. More importantly, I respect the Office of the President. And if one president can admit that he learned something from another president whose political views are diametrically opposed to his, then why can’t we all lower our collective voices and admit that there is usually something we can learn from a person who thinks differently than we do.

I’m just saying.