Obama’s teachable moment; Palin bombs

13 January 2011 |permalink | email article

The President faced a different challenge in addressing a traumatized Tucson community and the nation Wednesday night which drew comparisons with how President Bush spoke of the attacks on Sept. 11, and the memorial service which President Clinton led after the bombing of a federal building which killed 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995. Unlike the two previous tragedies were the days after the killings underscoring bitter partisan divisions in the nation.

Don Baer, Clinton’s chief speech writer at the time of the Oklahoma City memorial, told the New York Times that the demands for Obama were difference which “required a unifying voice that says enough already.”

Obama did not disappoint, talking at times like a political leader, but at other times,  as The Times noted, like a preacher – urging the audience and the nation to avoid recriminations, and as he put it, “honor the fallen” by moving forward and by “making sure we align with our values with our actions.”

His message was blunt: “At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.”

The most electrifying response to Obama‘s remarks came when he said minutes after he left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ hospital room that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, all close friends, were present when she opened her eyes for the first time.

Hours before Obama’s speech Sarah Palin broke her silence to rally her base with a controversial video message which denounced her critics about the Arizona shootings, accusing commentators and journalists of “blood libel” in a frenzied rush to blame heated political speech for the violence. Unclear was whether she understood the historic meaning of the phrase, full of religious symbolism about the false accusation used by anti-Semites of Jews murdering Christian children.

Matthew Doud, a former political adviser to President George W. Bush, and a frequent critic of Republicans, said Palin’s message was not appropriate for a moment of national grief and that she missed an opportunity to be seen as a leader. “Sarah Palin seems trapped in a world that is all about confrontation and bravado.”

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