President Obama spoke last night at the memorial for the victims of the attack in Tuscon, Arizona. I was able to watch most of it and read through the entire speech online, and he was fantastic, even if the forum ended up seeming a bit... pep rally-ish, as someone put it. If there were any Presidential moment that someone such as he was made for, it was this - with even the concern that he doesn't give off emotional depth proving to be untrue, at least on this occasion. He thankfully also implicitly chastised those who blame this on political debate, much like his former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was distraught (as mentioned on Best of the Web here) when a Newsweek piece utilized an old Emanuel line to argue for capitalizing on the tragedy for political gain.
On top of that, the President is finally seeming to take heed of the results of this past Congressional election, learning from his mistakes and working toward reshaping his White House staff. Karl Rove (!) heaps praise on Obama and his interim advisor Pete Rouse today in his weekly WSJ article, which is obviously saying quite a bit. To see that Obama is willing to change is quite refreshing, and hopefully he'll work closely with the GOP members such as Paul Ryan to actively cut spending as well, though this seems less likely at the moment. Certainly, though, these are steps in the right direction.
I think this is a truly wonderful two-step process.
ReplyDeleteThe bad cops, namely, the Demo-media and Demo-politicians, try to rough up the Right, but are caught in a big lie.
The good cop, their boss, President Obama, speaks eloquently ghost-written words at something akin to a pep rally. Surely, none of the bad fallout from the bad cops' activities can stick to him now.
"I ... read through the entire speech online"
ReplyDeletehat tip: well-connected friend ;)
Bob - I think that's assuming a bit too much to be reasonable.
ReplyDeleteEsther - I wasn't sure I could hat tip that one. :)
I exaggerated a little for effect but don't doubt this was their approach. Obama will try to stay above the fray for 2 years, at least, but his followers and employees will do the dirty work. This is a form of deniability, enhanced by the fact that the others often do attack-dog things on their own.
ReplyDeleteI think that may be the case for political events, but not this specific example. Most of the craziness started with liberal media members (Krugman, Alter) and not politicians, and it was a bit too gross with no real political benefit. I don't think Obama reflects better for "staying above the fray", merely that the people who didn't look worse.
ReplyDelete