Will Obama call for political civility in Tucson speech?

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...

Is Obama leavingthe left behind?
The day President Obama departed for Arizona to address the nation on the Tucson massacre, Washington was abuzz. Would he take the line of the hard Left and call out the Right for having created what columnist Paul Krugman called the "Climate of Hate" in which a mentally deranged Jared Lee Loughner had acted? Would he lay moral responsibility for the slaughter at the feet of Fox News and Sarah Palin, as the wilder voices of the Left have been doing nonstop since Saturday's shocking news? Ob...

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...

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...

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...

Stephanopoulos, NYT, CNN, WaPo decline to correct erroneous Giffords reporting (Daily Caller)
Read more stories from The Daily Caller Congressmen want increased security for themselves — but are they in more danger than teachers and doctors? Stephanopoulos, NYT, CNN, WaPo decline to correct erroneous Giffords reporting ObamaCare Repeal rescheduled; GOP not scared off by left-wing attacks Pollsters say Obama's Approval Ratings will have modest bump Woman behind Va. 'Repeal Amendment' effort running for Senate ABC News host George Stephanopoulos refuses to admit fault or issue a corre...

Cafferty: Palin Can't Be President Due to 'Inflammatory' Reply to Critics
Jack Cafferty's Palin Derangement Syndrome reached a new level on Thursday's Situation Room on CNN, as he attacked the Republican for her reply to those who tried to tie her to the Arizona shootings: "It was just awful, defiant, [and] inflammatory." Cafferty also ripped Palin for using the "blood Libel" phrase and stated that the reply would "effectively end her chance of ever being elected president." The commentator devoted his 5 pm Eastern hour Cafferty F...

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...

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...

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...

Palin's 10 Red Herrings (Politico)
Sarah Palin has continued and intensified the rhetorical strategy introduced by her supporters and surrogates in the wake of the Tucson tragedy. She’s offering a series of red herrings — distracting with concepts that are truthful, but irrelevant, to deflect from other issues or vulnerabilities. (The term originates with the practice of using cured fish to put Hunting Dogs off the track. 1) Free Speech: “Congresswoman Giffords and her constituents were exercising their right to...

Michelle Obama's Advice to Parents in Wake of Tucson Shooting
First Lady Michelle Obama is offering advice to parents who are struggling to help their Children understand the horrific Tucson massacre that killed six and wounded 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) Mrs. Obama accompanied President Obama to the Tucson memorial service for the Victims Wednesday at the University of Arizona, sitting next to Mark Kelly, the NASA Astronaut who is Giffords' husband. Her main advice: use the tragedy to teach kids about faith, compassion, hope and commun...

Right Wing Rage and Right Wing Populism
Lambert suggested I turn this comment on votermom's excellent distinction between anger and hate, into a regular post. For a very long time, the right-wing rage which we see now being turned against immigrants, “Socialists”, Obama etc was channeled into anti-communist feeling during the Cold War. Then the wall fell and for a while the same rage was turned in a number of directions, but did not really have a similar unifying focus. Or maybe it would be more accurate that for a while i...

Limbaugh's 'Straight Shooter' Tucson Billboard is Removed
Even gun metaphors need a rest now and again. In the wake of the Tucson, Ariz., shooting at an event hosted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Talk Radio host Rush Limbaugh has been emphatic in his assertion that he and other right-wing political figures in no way contributed to the mindset of suspected gunman Jared Loughner. But an unfortunate billboard advertising Limbaugh's show has given his critics some ammunition of their own. You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to into...

Sarah Palin and the "blood libel"
Posted by Paul at 8:30 PM Sarah Palin is coming in for criticism for using the term "blood Libel" to describe accusations that she and other outspoken Conservatives somehow have blood on their hands in connection with the Tucson shootings. Palin's remarks on the shootings are also being compared unfavorably to President Obama's Speech at the University of Arizona. Obama's Speech was healing and uplifting, while Palin's, some say, was divisive and defensive. I find both criticisms of Palin unfai...

Arizonas Mental Health Budget Crunch
National Review has a fine editorial on the Tucson massacre and Mental Health: The tragic irony is that Arizona boasts some of the strongest [involuntary commitment] laws in America. Had Jared Lee Loughner been referred to mental-health professionals, there is a chance that his bloody rampage could have been prevented. Think of all the people and institutions — his parents, his neighbors, his fellow Pima Community College (PCC) Students, PCC administrators, the Campus Police, the Pima County...

How We Enable Crimes of Insanity
The deranged expression on the face of Jared Lee Loughner in the Mug Shot released by the police—taken within hours after he allegedly killed six innocent people and wounded 14 more, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords—suggests that we may never fully understand whatever illness afflicts him. The law requires us to assess his mental state and motivations, but we might do better to analyze our own craziness. That doesn’t mean trying to determine whether events like the Tucson mas...

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...

Glenn Beck Supports Barack Obama. Seriously.
There's just one week for the Bipartisan feeling to stay in the media, as conservative commentators lauded President Barack Obama for his speech at the University of Arizona during a memorial service for the six dead and dozen wounded at a Tucson shooting, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. But for now, media figures like Glenn Beck and Chris Wallace lauded the efforts of Obama, who flew with several other lawmakers to be on the scene as not just the city, but the state of Arizona mourned, notes

Sarah Palin compares criticisms of her to a belief that led to the Holocaust
   In the wake of the shooting by Jared Loughner in Tucson last week, there was criticism directed against the harsh Rhetoric of those on the right-wing. Jared Loughner did not shoot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Murder a number of other individuals because Talk Radio or Sarah Palin told him to do so.  A few individuals though have committed violence or attempted to do so because of their hatred of the left. Byron Williams, a man who was going to commit violence a...

Adam Hanft: We Are More Civil Than Obama Gives Us Credit for
President Obama is generally getting strong reviews for his Speech last night, and I think he did a fine job of calling the nation to a higher purpose. There were even some moments when his Rhetoric spread its wings, as when he urged us to "expand our moral imaginations." Although there was nothing that came close to Peggy Noonan's words written for Ronald Reagan, and spoken on the day the Challenger Astronauts perished: "We will never forget them this morning as they prepared for their journe...

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...

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...

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...

From Palin to Pawlenty, GOP Presidential Prospects Grapple With Arizona Massacre
President Obama isn't the only leader being put to the test by last weekend's shooting rampage in Arizona. The tragedy is also serving as a proving ground for Republicans considering 2012 presidential runs. At least eight have weighed in, and the results are revealing. What does a hurting nation look for in a president? "Americans expect their presidents to be more than just the head of a political party or a political leader," says GOP Strategist Todd Harris, the spokesman for John McCain's 200...