There is a time for a President to get really deep in to an issue, and other times a President should adopt an “above it all, I’m America’s President” attitude. Obama may be about to go deep in to Arizona:
He’s handled it well thus far, actually, by keeping things low key. But alas, my friends, alas.
Mr. Obama was considering delivering a speech about the greater context surrounding the shooting, but advisers said it was premature to do so until Ms. Giffords’s condition stabilized and more became known about the gunman’s motives…
The subtext for the political discussion was the new balance of power in Washington, and how the shootings might play into Democratic efforts to regain initiative — and Republican efforts to keep it — after their losses in November. Both sides emerged from the weekend cognizant of the ways in which a politically charged act of violence, whatever the actual motives or mental state of the gunman, can recalibrate the national dialogue…
If Obama and his Democrats are seeing the Arizona tragedy as a means to revive their fortunes in the manner of Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing then they are going to be very badly mistaken. This time, it is different.
First off, the narrative post-OKC was still largely controlled by the MSM; while Rush was on the air back then, he was really the only major, national conservative voice and there was no conservative New Media to challenge the MSM narrative. Any attempt to twist Arizona to partisan advantage will not be able to gain as much traction as the post-OKC effort did.
Secondly, we on the right are in no mood to sit still for this. We, our views and our rhetoric had nothing to do with setting off a lunatic in Arizona. The man is crazy and, if you really want to assign a political alignment to him, he was of the left far more than of the right. Glenn Reynolds correctly identifies efforts to tie Arizona to the right as a blood libel – and if you think we were mad in 2010, just wait to see how mad we’ll be in 2012 if Democrats try to smear us with this.
Now, Obama can surprise me in this – maybe he will take the high road and just discuss in general terms the tragedy of the Arizona shootings and how we, the people, must remember the better angels of our nature. That would be fine – but I have grave doubts about Obama’s judgment and thus I am concerned that he’ll really step in it this time.
Now, liberals, is the time to drop this as a political issue. Right at this moment; stop it. We didn’t do this. We didn’t instigate it. We didn’t in any way, shape or form cause the event in Arizona. Leave it alone – you won’t like the result if you persist in this slander.
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