What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
BY TUCKER CARLSON AND NEIL PATEL
White House aides have indicated that President Obama will remain non-political in his speech tonight, while at the same time reminding the country of the need for tolerance. Both of these things can’t be true. Five days after Tucson, a speech about tolerance is by definition a political speech.
There is no evidence that Jared Loughner acted out of intolerance or partisanship, much less in response to the opinions of cable news hosts. No one has shown he listened to a minute of Rush Limbaugh. According to those who knew him, Jared Loughner began a descent into madness years ago. His crime was not a political act.
Obama’s political fortunes have been in dramatic decline recently, so it’s understandable why he and his advisers might view the killings in Tucson as a lifeline. They should resist the temptation. The president should memorialize the victims of this tragedy. He should highlight the heroism we saw during the event. And then he should stop.
It’s hard to believe he will. Instead, the president is likely to call for a change in our political discourse. He’ll ask Americans to treat their political opponents with respect, to tone down the rhetoric, to stop demonizing one another. Few would argue with that sentiment. But it’s the context that counts.
The suggestion – and it will surely be implied rather than stated – is that the killings in Tucson are the result of overheated political debate, a talk radio segment gone bad. And as a factual matter that’s not true. It’s a lie, designed to help Barack Obama and hurt his political enemies. It is in fact a sophisticated example of what the president himself will seem to be decrying: the politics of personal destruction.
Let’s hope the president pulls back tonight, and honors the memory of those who died by refusing to seek political advantage. We’ll know a lot more about what sort of man Barack Obama is by the time his speech is over.
(This article originally appeared at the Daily Caller)
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Comments :
Nov '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
Why is the Daily Caller trying to give helpful advice to Barack Obama? I thought it was a conservative website. Do they really want Obama to improve his standing with the American people so he can shove some more socialism down our throats?
Doesn’t really matter, Obama is not going to take their advice.
Jul '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
I'm suggesting he should feign a normal emotional response to other people's pain, followed by a sonorous litany of bromides and a totally insincere plea for civility in political discourse.
I'm pretty sure he'll take my advice.
Aug '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
Oh, the plea might be sincere enough, from his warped point of view. But sincerity won't change the fact that such a plea is logically inconsistent with the facts of the shooting.
May '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
"You don't ever want a good crisis to go to waste." -- Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm to Obama: "You learn well, Grasshopper."
May '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
Kenneth: I'm suggesting he should feign a normal emotional response to other people's pain, followed by a sonorous litany of bromides and a totally insincere plea for civility in political discourse.
I'm pretty sure he'll take my advice. · Jan 12 at 10:25am
That's only the first few minutes, Kenneth.
Once he get's through with the above he'll remind the nation that this terrible tragedy is really all about him, and spend the rest of the evening describing how it has effected him and how this attack on him will not dissuade him.
This gunman may have succeeded in drawing the nation's attention away from Obama for 5 days, but our President can overcome that barrier.
Jul '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
Obama will declare Loughner a victim of the vast right-wing conspiracy in general and conservative talk radio in particular and martial law to prevent a further deterioration of order and the creation of more Loughners. The announcement will come as a coordinated action by the US Army takes control of all broadcast, cable, satellite, and studio facilities in accordance with the Fairness Law, passed unread in the waning hours of the 111th.
The action will be justified as a preemption of Republican plans to do the same in 2013, plans uncovered by Dan Rather and Janet Cooke, following up on a hunch by Howard Dean. Secretary Gates will resign in protest. Ricochet will operate from its new headquarters in Costa Rica for about six months before taking permanent ownership of a cruise ship with satellite Internet that James Lileks will use to gather the last remaining CaliforniaRicos while continuously serving pages world wide, with the exception of the United States where Obama will praise the great work of Aaron Sorkin in helping him realize the irreparable harm caused by the Internet, and helping him realize the need to shut down American access.
You heard it here first!
Dec '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
I suggest that Barack Obama follow this script:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256942/sarah-palin-americas-enduring-strength-nro-staff
He shouldn't feel slighted or chagrined that Sarah Palin said it all first. I am sure he can deliver the same words from his Tele-Prom-Ter with more panache and faux empathy than she did.
Jul '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
"We’ll know a lot more about what sort of man Barack Obama is by the time his speech is over."
We already know everything there is to know.
Drinking game! Every time Obama utters "I."
Jan '11
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
He is set up to look magnanimous; the press has done his dirty work for him. By remaining neutral in tone, he will be inappropriately credited for being moderate.
Jul '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
Stuart Creque: I suggest that Barack Obama follow this script:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256942/sarah-palin-americas-enduring-strength-nro-staff
He shouldn't feel slighted or chagrined that Sarah Palin said it all first. I am sure he can deliver the same words from his Tele-Prom-Ter with more panache and faux empathy than she did. · Jan 12 at 11:16am
There was a whole lotta faux in her presentation. How does this woman get a reputation for dynamic public speaking?
Painful to watch. Thoroughly unauthentic.
Edited on Jan 12, 2011 at 11:55amOct '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
G.A. Dean
This gunman may have succeeded in drawing the nation's attention away from Obama for 5 days, but our President can overcome that barrier.
Alas, the story has already centered on how Obama will handle the tragic shootings rhetorically and how that will affect his political fortunes.
Non-political in the Teachable Moment Lexicon usually means the pretense of equating left and right by citing minor errors on the one hand and egregious offenses on the other, topped off with a tediously pedestrian exhortation to that foundational More Perfect Union of which Obama is Aspirational Avatar-in-Chief.
I sincerely hope that will change this time, because I could sorely use a moment, however fleeting, of national unity and reverence, without yet another cautionary addendum on tolerance and responsibility.
Even in that welcome event, the story will immediately revert to Obama and how wonderfully unifying, reverential and Presidential a performance he delivered, but the retrospective analysis will be easier to stomach if its actually true for once.
Oct '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
Bravo, Sisyphus, LOL!
Dec '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
Kenneth
Stuart Creque: I suggest that Barack Obama follow this script:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256942/sarah-palin-americas-enduring-strength-nro-staff
He shouldn't feel slighted or chagrined that Sarah Palin said it all first. I am sure he can deliver the same words from his Tele-Prom-Ter with more panache and faux empathy than she did. · Jan 12 at 11:16am
There was a whole lotta faux in her presentation. How does this woman get a reputation for dynamic public speaking?
Painful to watch. Thoroughly unauthentic. · Jan 12 at 11:53am
Edited on Jan 12 at 11:55 am
Perhaps she should have prefaced her remarks with a shout-out to one of her political peeps. Like our current President did in the wake of the Ft. Hood shooting.
Aug '10
Re: What Obama Shouldn't Say Tonight
This entire "controversy" was created out of whole cloth by Democrat hacks and their bobos in the media who are still smarting from the whuppin' they took in November. After all, to the Left facts are fungible things (just like the Constitution) and are meant to be manipulated to support what they know (feel) to be right.
Barack Obama - who doesn't take a back seat to any hack - will not be able to resist the opportunity to perpetuate this false controversy to gain political points and assuage his own hurting backside.
I think we are just beginning to see just how dangerous this Liberal wounded animal really is as they lash out in pain and frustration at their defeat...