On President Obama's Message

[H2O Man]

I watched parts of the ceremony on television tonight, for three general reasons. First, I have found the tragic event in Tucson difficult. Not only does it cause frustration on a rational level – it should never have happened – but it creates stress on an emotional level as well. The shooting of a political leader brings back ugly and painful memories from the past, and the senseless death of an innocent, nine year old girl is upsetting.

Second, I find human rituals fascinating. This evening's ritual was obviously of interest, as it shows – at least on some levels – what it is that helps many people to cope. Much like a funeral, this ritual event helps people to accept the reality of what happened. The time between Saturday and today combine a sense of the surreal, combined with an emotional roller-coaster. The group ritual helps to mark the end of the initial grieving period, and when conducted and experienced correctly, allows the individuals within the group to begin to move forward.

And third, I was interested in seeing and hearing how President Barack Obama would address the crowd, and indeed the American public. Several dynamics come in to play here. I've long been impressed by this young man's communication skills. Now, that's not limited in the sense that his enemies say that all he can do is read a good speech. I'm talking about his talent for writing most of his speeches, especially the most important ones. His ability to identify what he wants to say, and to then arrange his ideas in such a way as to deliver the message to a wide variety of listeners.

All of us who watched the “news” today know that the chattering heads were obsessing on if he would be “political,” as if any presidential address has the ability to somehow be non-political. And we know that President Obama is held to a much different standard, by numerous factions in the greater society, than other presidents have been. Add to that the fact that he was talking about a political act – the attempted assassination of a member of the House of Representatives, the assassination of a federal judge, and the murderous attack on a crowd of citizens exercising their Amendment 1 rights – and the task at hand was pretty difficult.

I thought that President Obama delivered. I say this as a member of the democratic left, who supported Senator Obama in the democratic primaries, and who has voiced a fair amount of both positive and negative things about his performance as President of the United States. In my opinion, he spoke to the important points that everyone should be focused on. In the future, he may need to speak in greater detail about some of the important aspects, including the hatred that the rigid, angry right-wing is injecting into the socio-political climate. I expect he may say more about this in a major speech later this month.

Tonight, I was favorably impressed by what President Obama said. Especially the part about making the public discourse worthy of those who were killed on Saturday. That's the Barack Obama that this nation needs.

Peace,
H2O Man

[Lint Head]

1. To make the public discourse worthy Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck and

Palin need to go away.

[mindwalker_i]

9. More to the point

The entire Republican party would have to go away, or at least radically change the way they conduct politics. Not gunna happen.

[uppityperson]

2. I agree. He hit on many major points, very much liked that one

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

3. Recced to zero, gotta love it around here.

[H2O Man]

7. Ha!

Suppose there's a few in every crowd.

Thanks!

[annabanana]

4. For me, the strongest part of his speech was urging us to make this Coutnry

the country our children imagine it to be, to live up to their expectations. I think we all started with a belief that the US was what we were taught in elementary school.

[hootinholler]

26. That has been resonating with me also...

I'm not sure how to say what I'm feeling about that without coming off as anti-Obama.

-Hoot

[obxhead]

30. Agreed

[snappyturtle]

5. I was encouraged by the President's words tonight. He has challenged

us to worthy discourse. Not only is that challenge noble it is impossible to find fault with....perfect! imho

[stevedeshazer]

6. The President did a fantastic job.

Like you and many others here, I've been alternately critical and supportive of him.

Tonight, I had my doubts.

I have bad memories of past political events like you do. As such, I think we are conditioned to expect the worst.

The President exceeded my modest expectations tonight.

It's what he does so well, raising the level of discourse just when it is needed.

Words do matter.

Steve

[spanone]

8. k&r

[blogslut]

10. For me, his speech reinforces what I believe is his primary motivation as president

It is the reason I supported and continue to support him. It is what he continues to exemplify in his actions and words, despite all his critics. It is his desire to unite us as a people.

[H2O Man]

11. Good point.

[RichGirl]

12. I feel exactly the same way.

Which is why I haven't criticized him. As far as I'm concerned, if we are not united then nothing else matters....it's all just details. It's like Tolstoy or somebody said "All happy families are different, all unhappy families are the same." If we are not united and in constant battle to the point where our lives are threatened, then the economy doesn't matter, who pays how much tax doesn't matter, etc.

[OneGrassRoot]

17. Very good point. Thank you. :) n/t

[eridani]

13. He could have mentioned the 400% inscrease in threasts against the presidential office

--that have occured since his inauguration, but he isn't the victim type, unlike quite a few unmentionable others.

[JJW]

14. Platitudes

First of all, politicians are not our spiritual leaders.

Leadership? I'm left seeing little. Our politicians should try to get along? We know, they'll be throwing mud at each other, as if nothing happened in a few days.

True leadership would intelligently address the reality of what happened. Underfunded and inadequate mental health care, joblessness, inadequate gun laws, etc.

[femrap]

21. I'm with you....

I wanted the true seriousness of these murders addressed....I wanted the question, 'Why?' answered.

[TBF]

22. That would've made it too political - he did exactly what Palin did not do

in her fireside rant. He rose above the pettiness and memorialized the victims. He can (and should) discuss mental health funding, joblessness, gun control in future speeches. Last night he kept it about the victims and I very much admired him for that.

And y'all know I don't often have praise for this president. He did a very good job.

[Little Star]

15. His tone was great and his words were measured. He....

was leading the tone of discourse by example. It was his best speech yet imho.

k&r

[DFW]

16. A masterful speech

He said what needed to be said.

I have read many hateful comments on it, mostly from the right. I was surprised to see the negative "platitudes" comment
above. This was a speech in the town where the shooting occurred, with Gaby's husband and the parents and relatives of
the other victims present. They would have been offended and rightly disgusted if Obama had turned this into a political
rally. As it is, the majority of comments on the Washington Post's article about the speech were hateful messages from the
radical right, objecting to the applause and cheering, as if 14000 university students in a Democratic town, getting
a rare chance to hear their President in person, were going to keep silent if he said something inspiring.

Gaby's husband, Mark, and even rightist politicians like Jon Kyl and Jan Brewer were applauding many parts of Obama's
speech, so maybe the WaPo's posters were from even farther out in right field than those two, although to be farther
to the right of Kyl and Brewer, you'd have to be an inmate at the Glenn Beck Hospital for the Politically Deranged.

[Mira]

18. Your words beautifully describe

what we heard and felt. And what he so succeeded in presenting to us. Thanks.
Recommended

[Goblinmonger]

19. Those that don't have the majority privilege

might find the over-reliance on Christian imagery and mythology a little off-putting.

And I, personally, found the "puddles in heaven line" vomit inducing.

[northamericancitizen]

20. Recommended

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[norske]

24. Coulda, woulda, shoulda

It was a great speech....he often gives great speeches and this was one of his best.

If his actions reflected the ideals expressed in his speeches..... he could become the greatest American President of all time.... Don't hold your breath.

[rosesaylavee]

25. His words were what I needed to hear...

And again, I continue to hope we can have that nation of which he spoke so eloquently.

[robertpaulsen]

27. Proud to be the 80th rec!

:kick:

[pacalo]

28. I was very impressed, too. His communication skills blow me away; he knows just what to say

& it's so obvious he sincerely "feels" his message.

The contrast between Obama's choice of words & Palin's choice of words made me think about Democratic leadership vs. Republican leadership. Democratic presidents aim to lead all Americans, choosing their messages to appeal to the majority's concerns; Republicans lead only their radical base, choosing their messages to hold on to power (which is why I have a major concern about election thievery; the modern-day, radical GOP doesn't represent the majority of this country, imo, & I question their election "victories").

I was so proud of Obama last night. He said what we needed to hear.

[Overseas]

29. Beautifully said. K&R!

I was sad about thinking about lost opportunities earlier, to tamp down the hostility with great boons right off the bat like universal health care during the waves of evictions and millions of jobs on our infrastructure. As long as they're going to call you a commie whatever you do, may as well have done what worked the last time the Republicans crashed the economy in the late 20's. Sigh... I had national health care once, I know the deep calm one feels. And working hard to rebuild our national infrastructure, and green it up and thereby help our small businesses compete in the international green technology markets-- that would feel very good to millions of people right now. So we have the Privatizers gumming up the works with hatred. We could be lovingly rebuilding our country right now, and retooling our national defense.

But I do realize we are in a very different country today, and in that country, we need a lot more peace and love. And our President gave us all some more of that last night. I'm glad I dashed home after work to see it.

And I thought of our old anthem-- All we are saaaying, is give peace a chaaaaance...

Thank you for your beautiful review.

[Major Hogwash]

31. My mother said she liked President Obama even more after his speech than she did last year.

She said that he has risen to the challenge, even after the Republicans raised the bar by filibustering so often.
She said that President Obama sounded a little like a minister, trying to instill hope in people who have seen the tragedy first hand and feel like they have no one to turn to in this time of grief.
I have to admit, a good leader knows how to pull that type of response out of his audience, how to instill hope, how to lead, and President Obama is one of the best speakers I have ever heard.

I hope that we can become the country that 9 year-old little girl named Christina wanted to live in when she grew up.
I also thought about the 3 70+ year-old ladies that were killed for no reason that day, too.
And of the judge, who went to talk with Representative Giffords.

The shooting was so senseless.