Bashing? How about realizing that our country has made some mistakes. Like the war in Iraq and the Gitmo prisoners that make us look like stalinist russia.
He also was making mention of our countries long struggle to live up to what it preaches, which is that we are a free nation. Our own history points to the fact that we have not lived up to that ideal (slavery, near genocide of native americans, the red scares, xenophobia, the rise of the KKK etc…) but that we are going in the right direction.
A little humility goes a long way. He actually went up a notch in my book by giving that speech.
P.S. : I’m the 1000th post!