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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.

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