{"id":3850,"date":"2011-01-13T09:21:44","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T17:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3850"},"modified":"2011-01-13T09:21:44","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T17:21:44","slug":"obama-in-tucson-brilliant-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/13\/obama-in-tucson-brilliant-but\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama in Tucson: Brilliant, but…"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I listened to Barack Obama delivering his speech at the Memorial Service in Tucson last night I felt transfixed by his words.  He was masterful in both formulation and delivery, capturing the mood of America and saying what needed saying.  Who would not have been touched by \u201cGabby opened her eyes for the first time.\u201d  But as much as I would love to see his words come true, they will not.  Here is an overview, the complete video and a link to the complete text of the speech, followed by my commentary on where it fell short.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"13obamatucson\"President Barack Obama mourned victims of the Tucson shooting spree Wednesday and urged Americans not to let a political debate over the tragedy be used as "one more occasion to turn on one another." <\/p>\n

In a speech at a service for those killed in a weekend massacre that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gravely wounded, the president appealed for national unity and soul-searching after the shootings. He urged Americans to "expand our moral imaginations" and "sharpen our instincts for empathy" \u2014 even with those who are political adversaries. <\/p>\n

"I believe we can be better," Obama said to a capacity crowd at the University of Arizona basketball arena \u2014 and to countless others watching across America. "Those who died here, those who saved lives here \u2014 they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us."\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <MSNBC<\/a>><\/p>\n

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If you prefer, here is the text of the speech<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

Here is the problem.  I say with certainty that anything resembling civility from Republicans will be both superficial and temporary.  The problem has never been lack of Democratic willingness to cooperate.  They have bent over backwards to find common ground with Republicans.  Worse yet, they have been over so far forwards that the poor and middle classes have suffered a torn sphincter.  Republican unwillingness to consider the needs of Americans in favor of exclusively supporting the wants of millionaires, billionaires and criminal corporations has not changed and will not change.  The lies that Republicans use to fool America will remain.  Republican calls for violence to distract their base with blood lust from consideration of meaningful ideas will return as soon as the news cycle moves on.  For all Obama\u2019s lofty, heartfelt, excellent words, nothing meaningful has changed.<\/font><\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not suggesting that Obama should have said what I am saying at the service.  That was for the families and the people who loved them and not the proper venue.  But the State of the Union address is approaching on January 25.  That is the venue when Obama must raise the issue of how Republicans are sacrificing the well being of this nation in their quest to eliminate the middle class and establish one party rule.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I listened to Barack Obama delivering his speech at the Memorial Service in Tucson last night I felt transfixed by his words.  He was masterful in both formulation and delivery, capturing the mood of America and saying what needed saying.  Who would not have been touched by \u201cGabby opened her eyes for the first […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}