Tim Dickinson begins: "Invoking the sunny idealism of a slain nine-year-old girl and the unlikely image of rain puddles in heaven? It wasn't textbook political rhetoric, but President Obama's memorial address for the victims of gunman Jared Lee Loughner was the most powerful speech of his presidency."
President Barack Obama attends the memorial service in Tucson, Arizona, for victims of the shooting there, 01/12/11. (photo: Getty Images)
The Most Powerful Speech of Obama's Presidency
16 January 11
nvoking the sunny idealism of a slain nine-year-old girl and the unlikely image of rain puddles in heaven?
It wasn't textbook political rhetoric, but President Obama's memorial address for the victims of gunman Jared Lee Loughner was the most powerful speech of his presidency.
My own political instinct in anticipation of Obama's address was to write about how the 2012 campaign was beginning in earnest: To contrast Sarah Palin's flag-draped, hearth-side chat (and accusations of "blood libel") with the Democratic president's man-in-the arena eulogy. And by the time the history of the next presidential campaign is written, we may very well recast these dueling speeches in that political frame. But as I sit here Wednesday night, I'm led in a different, less partisan, direction - by a president whose moral suasion I'd come to doubt. (After all, the last time Obama addressed the nation in a crisis, during the darkest moments of the BP oil spill last summer, he'd seemed cold, timid, out of his depth - a far cry from the electrifying politician of the 2008 campaign.)
Obama wasn't in campaign mode in Arizona. He was better than that. The man criticized for his Vulcan detachment in governance suddenly found a deeper groove; with higher fidelity; and affecting compassion. It was as though Obama had finally found his voice - not as a politician but as president.
In confronting the evil of Loughner's actions, the president asked us to aspire to the goodness of those senselessly gunned down in a Safeway parking lot. "If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate - as it should," Obama said, "let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost." Then, in a rhetorically risky move, he invoked the most innocent of the victims, nine year old Christina Taylor Green, to summon America's better angels: "I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it," Obama said. "All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations."
Obama succeeded last night by using his pulpit not to bully, but to lead a polarized nation past finger pointing and toward a higher purpose.
Sure: It was good night for Obama, politically. But it was a better night, by far, for America.
To watch President Obama's speech or read the transcript click here.
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Hopefully this whole sordid incident can be where we rise as a nation and resolve to be less foolish in how we approach our lives and conduct our politics.
See: http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/25-25/4586-obama-is-palin-without-the-lipstick
The man is a moderate Republican and the banking industry's best friend.
Let's try for a while to quit being cynical. Let's try to quit personalizing our comments.
I, too, have a gift for words. But my words would mean nothing, if my deeds did not match them. Obama sold us out to his buddies on Wall Street.
This is not the change I voted for. It is, in fact, the policies I thought I was voting against in 2008.
I won't be fooled again.
I'd consider voteing R since it might have meant near open political warfair on the part of Democrats agaist the radical right and them forceing McCain to do what is right. Also there is always voteing for a third party like the Green party, the more the two main parties disapoint voters the more third parties become a viable option.
I encourage all of us in this discussion to put this kind of intensity into actual service. Anger is healthy if it is motivation to positive action. We are adults, not children waiting to be led. If you see a mess, roll up your sleeves and get to work. "It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
All of you are in this whether you know it or not.
Go out and do something. Go help someone. Contribute or work in a food bank. Or in a shelter. Or run for office. If you're not doing anything, quit bitching. If you're not doing anything, find something else to complain about. Like snow plowing or something. Quit messing up the world with all your negativity and blaming everyone else.
Yes, light a candle. If you do, and I do and everyone else does, think of the light we can shed to see our way clearly to what needs to be done.
I agree with you DougS. It's why I go my own way politically, although I am pragmatically radical philospohically and am in general agreement with most of the writers here. The "pure radicals" who write on these threads will never give the President credit. He may be as pragmatically radical in his heart as any of us but he is profoundly aware he has to deal with a srong streak of moderate conservatism in the majority of citizens. Also it seems apparent these "pure" radicals don't know any African Americans. I am good friends with several and I can assure you President Obama is their hero and they will vote for him en masse in 2012. What other democrat will have that "base" in his pocket?
That's not pragmatism, it's weakness and timidity.
That's not pragmatism.
Barack Obama is a great orator. I will give him that much. He makes great and wonderful speeches that help to inspire people, but words don't change reality. It's one's actions and deeds that change reality. There were many people in history who were great orators, but whose actions, or lack thereof, led to great tragedies.
For all intents and purposes, we are still living to a very large degree in an atmosphere that is more like the Bush administration than what Obama had promised us. The illegal wars of aggression not only continue, but are being expanded with more innocent indigenous people being murdered today than ever. Torture, extrajudicial killings, extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention of mostly innocent victims, illegal spying on U.S. citizens, and so many other Bush era practices continue today under Barack Obama.
So, if you want to hit me with your negative points, go right ahead. It will not change the truth about who Obama really is.
While war rages in Afghanistan, rendition continues, Bradley Manning sits in jail for telling the truth, and the President doesn't stand with the economically oppressed, he deserves every bit of criticism voiced on this page.
At the same time, Obama is a man on the left hand side of the spectrum who actually got elected President of the United States while the American empire is in full regressive mode. He has done some good things and will do some more. He is constrained by political realities and the need to get re-elected by a right-of-center electorate.
Those of us on the left should pay attention to the reaction to Oswald and his most recent speech. Vision inspires people to move beyond their comfort zone. Reaching out to people who see the world differently is a good thing. Criticism without vision doesn't move the discussion forward.
You state that "Obama is a man on the left hand side of the spectrum." I have no idea what you mean by that. From Obama's actions & deeds, & not from his great oratory, which would make you think that he's on the left, he appears to be much more to the right, & not even close to the center.
He continues to try to fool & deceive his voting base with his great words, that he's a man of honor & integrity speaking from the left, but, unfortunately, we are experiencing a president whose actual actions have substantially improved the lot on the right, starting with the banksters & his strong support of the TARP bailout Bill as written by Hank Paulson, as well as energy companies & weapon manufacturers.
You also state that the U.S. empire is in full regressive mode. It seems to me that our U.S. empire is succeeding beyond its widest dream in expanding its horizons by continuing to take control over more & more countries each year, and, yes, at a great cost to the American people.
I know how to fix the problems here in the United States, but I don't have the power to do so.
You made the above statements. I would 1st like to point out to you that GW also had political realities, & yet that didn't stop him from steamrolling over the Dems when they got in his way or using fear tactics against the Dems in order to accomplish virtually everything that he set out to accomplish, most of which seriously hurt the average American. Bush threatened the Senate Dems with the nuclear option that would've completely nullified the filibuster requiring only a simple majority vote in the Senate in order to pass any Bill that Bush wanted to pass, or to select any candidate for any position.
The one big thing that Bush failed to do was destroy the entitlements, most especially Social Security (SS) by privatizing it. But, Obama, allegedly a Dem pres, along with the Repubs, appear well on their way in destroying SS & Medicare & Medicaid. The payroll tax cut that Obama passed in Dec was just the beginning in the overall effort to destroy SS.
You said that Obama has done some good things, but, in doing so, has appeared to give much more to the right wing extremists than he has accomplished for the average U.S. citizen.
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