Has this ever happened to you?
You form an opinion about someone based on what others have said, only to meet them and find out that you had a totally wrong impression?
Or you’ve read select quotes from a person, only to learn that these quotes, which were taken out of context, painted a very false picture?
I had been following a political race in one state from a distance, very much opposed to the Democratic candidate but not particularly happy with the Republican candidate either. He sounded like an unreasonable extremist, not to mention a loose cannon.
At least that’s the way I often saw him portrayed while surveying a number of different websites.
Finally, I decided to listen to him firsthand, and I was totally surprised. He was well spoken. He was careful in his choice of words.
He was reasonable.
And he sounded like a solid conservative rather than an extremist.
I had been misled by a caricature of the man whose quotes were spun in the worst possible way and divorced from their larger context. Without digging a little deeper, I had formed a wrong impression of who he really was.
I had allowed headlines and soundbites to manipulate me...