Thursday, January 13, 2011
A short note on the Tucson speech
In the cold light of morning, Tom Maguire did not love President Obama's Tucson speech quite as much as the chattering classes and even many conservatives. I saw it in real time, and had two reactions. First, it was careful, insofar as the president artfully told everybody what they wanted to hear. Well, good, it was a memorial service, after all. Nobody wants a lot of truth-telling at a funeral. Second, the president together with the crowd veered dangerously close to the edge of excessive exuberance when he recognized the heroes of that sad day. The crowd reacted to each story boisterously, and for a moment Obama almost joined in. You could see him smiling and pumping out more enthusiasm, and then he suddenly dialed it back, almost as though he saw the peril. One more step and he might have gone over the edge, but he did not and it was in the end a fine speech.
Unless, of course, you have too good a memory.
5 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Jan 13, 02:10:00 PM:
By , at
Thu Jan 13, 04:43:00 PM:
I thought it started promisingly, but it sadly turned into a campaign rally. I half expected him to announce he was accepting the floor nomination as the speech wound down towards the end. All of his shout-outs and clapping in time with the crowd made him a part of the boisterousness, and it all seemed sadly misplaced at a Memorial service for murder victims.
The other thing I found horribly offensive was the seating of Sheriff Dupnick right in the front section. He's been a prime mover in all the leftist demagoguery surrounding the crime that's taken palce over the course of last few days, and if the President sought to add any substance at all to his empty rhetoric of civility, that man would have been persona non grata.
All in all, a long-winded campaign rally with empty centrist-sounding flourishes. At least he didn't make it all about himself.
By 
Unknown, at
Thu Jan 13, 06:47:00 PM:
After listening to Gov. Christie and not listening to the Big O, I have only one observation. Lincoln nailed the 'Presidential Speech' with the Gettysburg address.
Simple, observant, honest, and brief. Some might say heartfelt.
A few more brief and honest speeches would do our entire country good.
By JPMcT, at
Sun Jan 16, 01:39:00 AM:
So everybody is impressed that, halfway through his term, the man finally is handed a piece of paper to read that makes him look like Solomon.
...and then he cancels the "Bush wall" across our Southern Border, eases travel restrictions to Cuba, calls France our closest ally and gets ready to expand the debt ceiling.
It isn't what you say...it's what you DO...that really matters.
If the Democrats hadn't gotten pasted in the last election, there would have been NO END to the recrimination of the right over the death of a congresswoman who nobody has ever heard of at the hands of a non-political psychotic....and no talk of "bipartisanship".
Obama is a disaster. Reading a piece of paper on TV containing words written by a consultant does nothing to change that.
By JPMcT, at
Sun Jan 16, 01:41:00 AM:
correction:
NEAR-death of a congresswoman.
It was the Republican judge who got killed.
Nobody really talks about him, do they?
