The President's Speech in Tucson

I watched most of President Obama's speech last night and what immediately struck me was how raucous the crowd was. All of the cheering and whistling, even while he was talking! Geez, I expected it to be more sedate but it had the feeling of a campaign rally. I don’t blame President Obama for this, it was clearly the mood of the crowd which was distractingly unexpected. It was surreal.

As for the President; it was an excellent speech, delivered exceptionally well. Forgiving the increasingly annoying upturned chin, I’ll have to say that he gave the best speech he has ever given last night; he rose to the occasion and was presidential. Even the staccato nature of his speech was a bit less evident, though he did lapse into the “black preacher” speech pattern a couple of times – he seems to do that when he gets on a roll.

He did touch upon the disgusting political profiteering of the past days which touched a nerve in me, but he handled it deftly, admonishing that it is not an occasion for finger pointing and that political rancor played no part in the crime. That said, there were allusions to “civility” which seemed to contradict his admonishment.

All tolled, I’ll have to give the devil his due on this one; well done. As much as I disagree with the man, we are all well served by a President who can deliver on an occasion such as this, and he did so.