Obama takes opportunity Palin missed

As Obama urged unity, Palin brought division
President Obama did not miss the moment. From the generally positive overnight reaction, Obama's Speech in Tucson on Wednesday night struck just the right notes. Amid grief over a senseless tragedy and against a raging debate that threatened to further divide the country, the president urged healing and Reconciliation. This Story The Take: As Obama urged unity, Palin brought division Police recover black bag, ammunition believed to belong to Tucson suspect Wasserman-Schultz, Gillibrand discus...

9-year-old girl's death hits home for Obama
There are moments that define a presidency, and Barack Obama's Speech Wednesday night to a memorial service for Arizona Shooting Victims may be one. First in a moving eulogy to those who died, then in uplifting tales of those who acted heroically, finally in a call to the nation to live up to the ideals of a slain 9-year-old girl, Obama recaptured, at least temporarily, the appeal that first thrust him onto the national stage: the sense that the country is a family that yearns to be united, no...

Obama Rising
Barack Obama's soothing words after the Tucson shootings contrast sharply with Sarah Palin's harsh Rhetoric. That may be one reason Obama is on the rise in recent polling. The morning after President Barack Obama delivered a well-received eulogy for the Victims of the Tucson, Arizona, Mass Shooting, he got some good news from a Quinnipiac University poll. Obama’s Approval Rating increased to 48 percent, his highest number in more than a year. More importantly, Americans view Obama much mor...

Mayor Bloomberg says he doesn't blame Sarah Palin for Tuscon shooting
The tragic shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has led to a lot of finger pointing, including from New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, but one person who the mayor doesn’t blame is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. On Tuesday Bloomberg, who serves as co-chair of the nearly 600 member Mayors Against Illegal Guns blamed government officials for selling a gun to a man who was rejected from the Military due to drug use and outlined five simple measures that could preve...

A cordon of reason
(Raf is a great Veteran of the Colorado blogosphere. Well written and thus promoted. - promoted by redstateblues) It's Thursday, and the shockwaves from Saturday's attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabby Giffords, and the brutal Murder of six people at the "Congress in your Corner" event she was hosting, still reverberate. "Even in the old West, cowboys hung up their guns when they entered a saloon." Cliff and the Congressman are right, and I don't have to travel far in my memory to see the util...

Bogus Christianists
Yes, I have paid attention to the attempted Assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Murder of six other people, and the attempted political Assassination by the Leftist media of Former Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) in these past few days. Yes, I'm up to my ears in taking care of my great-aunt--an invalid since her accident on September 24th of last year.  Yes, I am grateful to the awesome King Shamus for keeping my blog alive from that time until now. But what I want to know...

Friday Open Thread
Lawrence O’Donnell’s Last Word dedicated a segment to understanding Sarah Palin and her “blood Libel” claims in light of President Obama’s comments, and needless to say that O’Donnell and his panel- David Frum and Mother Jones’ David Corn- took a bit of an issue with it. But for Frum, her comments weren’t offensive- they were proof Palin was eroding- like a “big melting iceberg.” So much for abandoning the “...

Thousands gather for Ariz. girl's funeral
** RE-TRANS FOR IMPROVED TONING ** Seated next to his wife Roxanna Green, left, John Green rests his hand on his son Dallas' leg during the Funeral of his daughter, 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, in Tucson, Ariz. Green was the youngest Victim of Saturday's shooting in Tucson. The casket for Christina Taylor Green seemed too small to hold the grief and despair of the 2,000 mourners who packed into a church Thursday to say goodbye to the 9-year-old girl whose life beg...

Youngest US shooting victim laid to rest
The youngest Victim of the Arizona shootings has been laid to rest, a day after President Barack Obama hailed the nine-year-old girl as an inspiration to US politicians to heal their poisonous divisions. Christina Taylor Green, who was among six people killed by a lone gunman in Tucson last Saturday, has become the heart-breaking public face of the attacks which unleashed a wave of soul-searching about America's political culture. Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, 40, was left fightin...

Worst Thing Said This Week: Limbaugh Wins
At the memorial service in Tucson on Wednesday night, President Barack Obama delivered a moving Speech--one of the best of his Political Career--and fulfilled the role of leader. He called on Americans to debate our policy and political differences with honesty and respect, noting that "a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation." It is the president's job to inspire and encourage what Abraham Lincoln described as "the better angels of our nature...

Finding the Forgotten Majority
“There is a need for some reflection here—what is too far now? What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and Talk Radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.” Those were the words of an unnamed Republican senator after America’s latest shooting rampage, this one a political Assassination attempt in Tucson, Ariz. How sad—and telling—that the lawmaker refused to attach...

Healer in Chief
The powerful elegy that President Obama delivered in Tucson was a big step toward his long-held goal of transforming the nation’s choleric and dysfunctional political culture. Subsequent steps will be harder—but no longer seem impossible. Listening to Obama’s Speech brought back memories of Obama the Candidate, a mesmerizing orator with the power to summon visions of a better America. He seemed almost to transcend politics. If you listened to what candidate Obama was saying, h...

The madness of cross hairs, shots in the foot and the civility of blame
Does Sarah Palin have blood on her hands? Does she? Answer the question! Or the Tea Party for that matter? Care to blame someone not already mentioned? If, God forbid, Sarah Palin is ever put in the cross hairs of some perverted assassin’s weapon will the Left accept her blood on their own hands? Will you accept the responsibility of your own complicity in that act by virtue of the incontinent words with which you have chosen to condemn her? You were all so quick to assign the blame for th...

Where will Obama go from Tucson?
President Obama is receiving uniform praise for his memorial remarks in Tucson, Ariz. Even Conservatives are saying he hit the right notes, substantively and tonally. I agree, with a few qualifiers and gentle cautions. Obama was eloquent in his tribute to the Victims and appropriately acknowledged that "none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack ... or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man's mind." More importantly, he said: "But what we cannot do is...

Obama's call for civility seen as striking right tone
WASHINGTON — President Obama's warmly received plea for tolerance and temperance in the wake of last weekend's massacre in Tucson has created an opportunity for him to change the tone of political debate in Washington — and possibly advance his overall agenda. Former White House officials and experts in government and communications said Obama's healing words at Wednesday night's memorial service conveyed a message the country needed to hear. By not pointing fingers or seeking to scor...

Poll says Obama rebounding with voters, would beat GOP rivals
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has bounced back from his low point after November's Elections and enjoys stronger support heading into the 2012 election cycle, particularly against Sarah Palin, according to a McClatchy Newspapers-Marist poll released Thursday. Obama's fortunes appear to be rising along with the country's. The poll found a jump in the number of people who think the country's heading in the right direction. Also, the president probably benefited from the productive post...

Palin Cries On Hannitys Show
In the last video we reviewed there was a certain level of her smiling that indicated she was enjoying it all.  Her beef was to complain about Joe Klein a Time Magazine columnist who called her “seditious” and we are sure she had to look it up in a dictionary. The video tape is dated April 2010 where she ran away from the liberal biased media  and seemed to take joy in discrediting Time Magazine. She put down Time Magazine for “allowing the Rhetoric” as if they...

Governor calls for civility
PARAMUS, N.J. - Gov. Christie says the shooting of a congresswoman in Arizona won't stop him from meeting with voters. New Jersey's Republican Governor was flanked by more State Police security than usual on Thursday as he met voters at a town-hall meeting in Paramus. Christie began by referencing last weekend's shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.). The blunt Governor urged civility in the forums, even when people disagree. Earlier in the day, Christie praised President Obama's mem...

Surrounded by friends, Giffords opens one eye and reaches for husband's hand
At first, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eye just a tiny bit. Then she opened it again, and again. This Story The Take: As Obama urged unity, Palin brought division Police recover black bag, ammunition believed to belong to Tucson suspect Wasserman-Schultz, Gillibrand discuss Giffords opening her eyes Obama: 'Gabby opened her eyes' Hero intern Daniel Hernandez talks with The Post Obama Tucson Speech: A way that heals Loughner pulled over before shooting Tucson recovers Obama visits surviv...

Will the Tucson Shooting Alter the Gun Control Debate?
Photo: Getty Images As the Green family buried their 9-year-old daughter Christina-Taylor today, one group has remained surprisingly silent: The National Rifle Association. Out of respect for Saturday's Shooting Victims, the NRA has said it will stay mum until all of the Victim's funerals have passed, noting that “at this time, anything other than prayers for the victims and their families would be inappropriate.” But Gun Control advocates have openly expressed their hopes that thi...

Arizona Memorial: A Most Disquieting Display
Last night in Arizona someone planned a memorial service and a pep rally broke out. In a wildly inappropriate display of mirth, rock star adulation, screams from the crowd and raucous applause the purported memorial service held at University of Arizona for those that fell at the hands of a crazed shooter earlier in the week went badly awry Wednesday night. Nothing this gauche has been seen since the classless memorial turned pep rally held for Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone that got so many i...

You Must Read Allahpundits Summary of the Obama/Palin Comparisons. Now.
You Must Read Allahpundit’s Summary of the Obama/Palin Comparisons. Now. I will not excerpt. A homework assignment for aspiring Speechwriters: Try to write an address titled “I Didn’t Kill Anyone” without sounding aggrieved. Now read the whole thing. They called Obama’s Speech masterful. Absurd. This is masterful....

Pawlenty Defends Palin From Elites
The Huffington Post reports: WASHINGTON — Speaking before the National Press Club on Thursday, in what was yet another tease at a forthcoming presidential run, Gov. Tim Pawlenty defended fellow GOPer Sarah Palin against critics who he deemed highbrow elitists. The Minnesota Republican, in a late stage of his book tour, had caused a mild sensation days before when he dared to cast doubt on Palin’s decision to use crosshairs to label the House races she was targeting in 2010. But he ...

Cheap Unity
In 1937, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer published a book called "The Cost of Discipleship." In that book, Bonhoeffer wrote about the dangers of what he called 'cheap grace,' which he defined as "the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession..." Bonhoeffer's point was that while forgiveness, baptism and Communion are a wonderful part of church life, they cannot be truly experienced without paying a cost. Bonhoeff...

Christina Taylor Green, 9-year-old Tucson victim, is laid to rest
TUCSON - She became a national symbol of a longing for civility - a young girl full of innocent magic, curious about the world around her, brimming with excitement over her recent election to her Student council. This Story At Gabrielle Giffords's bedside, a constant, emotional vigil after Tucson shooting Christina Taylor Green, 9-year-old Tucson Victim, is laid to rest Police recover black bag, ammunition believed to belong to Tucson suspect Young Shooting Victim remembered Doctors: Giffords...