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Mr. President

By Art Gallagher

Yesterday, for the first time in his presidency, in my biased point of view, Barack Obama was presidential as he addressed a memorial service at the University of Arizonia.   As Jonathan Freedland wrote at The Guardian, Obama rose to the moment and transcended it.  Governor Chris Christie said the president’s speech was “excellent…just what a leader should do at a moment like this,” on ABC’s Good Morning America this morning.

As I listened to Obama refer to scripture and invoke the G word last night as he sought to heal the emotional wounds of a city and nation shocked by the Tucson shootings, and to bring people together, I imagined Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former spiritual advisor who uses scripture to divide, having a stroke and the ACLU trying to come up with a legal strategy to suppress the president’s first amendment rights.

Obama told the truth about the Tucson shootings.  We don’t know what caused a troubled mentally ill 22 year old man to go on a shooting rampage.  We know it was not political rhetoric, as has been alleged by the Pima County Sheriff trying to deflect attention from his department’s own failures and by far too many of the left who crassly attempted to use the tragedy to advance their agenda and silence their opponents. “It’s not,” Obama ad libbed from his prepared text, referring to the allegations that vitriolic rhetoric caused the shootings.

Obama was civil in calling for civility in our political discourse, as we strive to become a more perfect union.

Time will tell if President Obama has had a breakthrough in his ability to lead.  If the Barack Obama who showed up in Tucson last night keeps showing up, his speech last night will go down in history as one of the great presidential addresses.

If you missed the speech or wish to study it, it can be viewed here.

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Posted: January 13th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Barack Obama, Tucson shootings | Tags: , | 10 Comments »

10 Comments on “Mr. President”

  1. Elyse Jankowski said at 10:56 am on January 13th, 2011:

    Well, well!

    Let us not forget this – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB-JysC6TrQ

    Another instance when our President was more than honorable in the wake of tragedy.

  2. ArtGallagher said at 11:12 am on January 13th, 2011:

    Or this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0YH6UQNbBo

  3. Elyse Jankowski said at 11:17 am on January 13th, 2011:

    Hell yeah! Power to the middle class.

    And I get carsick in the back seat, so to avoid puking on elephants (because I’m courteous), I call shotgun.

  4. brian said at 12:26 pm on January 13th, 2011:

    And Ms. Jankowski’s classy remarks again proves why the Dem’s symbol is a jackass.

  5. Rick Ambrosia said at 1:41 pm on January 13th, 2011:

    It was amazingly appropriate given the atmosphere. Most powerful when he talked about the people that were killed, and especially when he talked about Christina Green.

  6. Elyse Jankowski said at 2:04 pm on January 13th, 2011:

    You conservatives take everything way too seriously. Lighten up! It’s why we Libs have all the fun!

  7. Janice said at 6:04 pm on January 13th, 2011:

    Elyse, Art and his buddies do have fun. They watch Youtube videos of Hillary Clinton falling on the stairs as they touch themselves. No there’s “classy” for you.

  8. Michael Borg said at 10:31 pm on January 13th, 2011:

    His words may have been appropriate but the venue and the staging were completely inappropriate for a mournful event such as this. We’re talking about a terrible tragedy – this was staged like a campaign event.

  9. Elyse Jankowski said at 11:15 am on January 14th, 2011:

    I think Janice is my new best friend.

  10. MoreMonmouthMusings » Blog Archive » MMM Year In Review - January said at 10:42 am on December 27th, 2011:

    […] media and Democrats in Congress blamed the massacre on the Tea Party and Sarah Palin.    President Obama was presidential in calming the rhetoric and healing the […]