User:Cullen328/Sandbox/Obama Tucson

Times of India
The Times of India called the speech "a stirring memorial address by President Obama on Wednesday that abjured politics and called for 'talking with each in a way that heals, not a way that wounds'".

Public opinion regarding the speech
One week after the speech, John Harwood of CNBC reported that a poll conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal had found that Obama's job approval rating had increased frm 45% to 53% in the past month. Harwood said that Obama was "strengthened by his adjustment to Republican gains and his response to the Tucson shootings", and that as a result, he "approaches next week's State of the Union address with renewed political momentum".

The Pew Research Center conducted a poll that asked about American's response to Obama's speech in Tucson. The report said that "the aftermath of the deadly shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., dominated the public's news interest last week as President Obama's speech at a memorial service won praise -- across party lines -- among those who had read or heard about the event." According to Pew, "Most Americans say they heard at least a little about Obama's speech at the Jan. 12 memorial service at the University of Arizona (75%). Among that group, nearly seven-in-ten (69%) say the address was either excellent (36%) or good (33%), while 21% rate the speech as only fair (15%) or poor (6%)."

ABC News and the Washington Post conducted a poll that gauged public response to Obama's response to the shootings, including his Tucson speech. Pollster Gary Langer reported that "Seventy-eight percent in a new ABC News-Washington Post poll approve of the way Obama has responded to the shootings, which he addressed in a speech in Tucson last week; that includes 71 percent of Republicans and conservatives alike."

Summary of speech
Early in the speech, Obama said, "There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole in your heart," and then said that the hopes of the nation were with those in mourning.

He quoted from Psalms 46:4-5, and then summarized the events of the previous Saturday morning, when six people were killed and Gabrielle Giffords was shot through the head, while "gathered outside a supermarket to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and free speech."

Six times over, he devoted four or five sentences each to summarizing the lives of the six victims who were killed: Judge John Roll, Dorothy Morris, Phyllis Schenck, Dorwan Stoddard, Congressional aide Gabe Zimmerman and Christina Taylor Green. Summarizing this section of the speech, he said, "Our hearts are broken by their sudden passing. Our hearts are broken - and yet, our hearts also have reason for fullness."

He then mentioned the 13 people who had survived being shot, specifically Congresswoman Giffords, who was the most seriously injured. He went on to praise the heroism of those who acted to save people, including those who provided emergency first aid, those who helped disarm and subdue the gunman, and the nurses, physicians and emergency personnel who helped save the lives of the wounded.

Obama discussed how people were seeking to make sense out of something senseless by debating issues such as gun control and mental health, observing that such discussion were necessary. He urged that people discuss such matters "in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds." Quoting the Book of Job 30:26, he observed that "terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding." He then said, "For the truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack", and that no one can know "what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man's mind". Urging his listeners to avoid using the tragedy as "one more occasion to turn on one another", he recommended humility, empathy and especially reflection instead, urging people to consider whether they have "shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives".

He then returned to a tribute to those who were killed, praising their virtues, and concentrating specifically on the example of Christina Taylor Green, the nine year old girl who had been born on September 11, 2001. He recommended that people should be motivated by their loss to "strive to be better in our private lives", and to ""help usher in more civility in our public discourse."

Commenting that "those who died here - those who saved lives here - they help me to believe", he observed that, in the end, "people are full of decency and goodness."

Wrapping up his speech with more anecdotes about Christina Taylor Green, he said that "we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations", and closed the speech with a blessing.

Writing the speech
Obama began writing his speech the Saturday of the shooting, discussing the matter with young Pentecostal clergyman, Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. That day and Sunday, he spoke to relatives of the victims of the shooting, including Mark E. Kelly the astronaut who is Gabrielle Gifford's husband.

The formal speechwriting process began on Monday, with staff speechwriter Cody Keenan, whose many written remarks for the president include his eulogy for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Keenan, previously a staffer for Senator Edward Kennedy, had help write the remarks Obama had delivered after Kennedy's death. Keenan is a Chicago native, and a recent graduate of Harvard University with a master's degree in public policy.

White House staffers found a copy of Faces of Hope, a book picturing 50 babies born on Sept. 11, 2001. One was Christina Taylor Green, the girl killed in the shooting. That book contained a quote from Christina that Obama incorporated into his speech: "I hope you jump in rain puddles."

White House staffers exchanged emails with religious advisors about biblical passages, settling on the Book of Job and Psalms 46. Obama decided to quote the lesser-known, middle part of the psalm, feeling it better fit his theme as opposed to more frequently quoted verses.

Responses by historians
Presidential scholar Douglas Brinkley called the speech a turning point in the Obama presidency. "It was his most important speech so far, one that history is going to reflect on," said historian Brinkley. "There was a bit of Dr. King to him. That’s simply been missing in his presidency so far. I was sitting there and I realized, ‘This guy might be a great man.’ I had forgotten about that."

Interviewed by Gwen Ifill on PBS, historian Michael Bechloss said that, "I thought it was one of the best speeches he's ever given. Not only the message, which was to pull the redeeming things out of this horrible episode, but also the way he really sort of came to life while giving it."

"It was really a sign of what we expect from our president, that is what a leader does in a time of crisis and division and tragedy is to reduce, not heighten tensions. And I thought by his example, the way he described the humanity of all of the people involved in this tragic event, that he showed by the way he spoke and what he asked Americans to do. He led by his own example in a very powerful way."

Writing in the New York Review of Books, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills wrote that "Obama had to rise above the acrimonious debate about what caused the gunman in Tucson to kill and injure so many people. He side-stepped that issue by celebrating the fallen and the wounded and those who rushed to their assistance. He has been criticized by some for holding a “pep rally” rather than a mourning service. But he was speaking to those who knew and loved and had rallied around the people attacked. He was praising them and those who assisted them, and the cheers were deserved." Wills compared the speech favorably to two great speeches by Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural. Wills also compared the speech to William Shakespeare's version of Henry V's speech at Agincourt.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was struck by the emotion that the usually self-controlled Obama showed during the speech. "He did exactly what the moment called for, in a way that was consistent with him as a cerebral president. It was a completely authentic moment."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2042201,00.html Time magazine

http://buffalobullet.blogspot.com/2011/01/tucson-address-compared-with-other.html Brokaw quotes

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/us/14obama.html?partner=rss&emc=rss New York Times

Gary Wills

Responses to the speech
Senator John McCain praised Obama's call for civility as a "terrific speech. McCain said that Obama had "comforted and inspired the country." McCain also said that Obama had "movingly mourned and honored the victims", and "encouraged every American who participates in our political debates - whether we are on the left or right or in the media - to aspire to a more generous appreciation of one another and a more modest one of ourselves."

David Jackson of USA Today wrote that "A little more than a week after the deadly shooting in Arizona, it seems clear that President Obama's political standing is stronger." Describing the impact of Obama's speech, he said that it had "won near-universal praise, his approval ratings are back at 50% or higher in several polls, and many commentators put him in an improved position for re-election in 2012."

The Wall Street Journal reported that praise for the speech came from conservative pundits such as Charles Krauthammer and prominent Republicans including Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty and Ed Rollins. The newspaper reported that Obama was making "an effort to recast himself as a unifying figure, after two years of partisan fights" and that "it was clear he had taken another step in that direction".

Linda Feldmann of the Christian Science Monitor reported that Glenn Beck called the speech “probably the best speech he has ever given.” Pat Buchanan called it "splendid." Michael Gerson, speechwriter for George W. Bush, said "it had a good heart." The newspaper reported that Fox News panelists Brit Hume and Chris Wallace had praised the speech.

Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly wrote an opinion piece in the Boston Herald, saying, "In an excellent speech eulogizing the six dead and paying respect to the critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Obama appealed to the nation to cool down and stop the nonsense." O'Reilly went on to say that Obama should have given the speech sooner.

Discussing the speechwriting process, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times wrote that the speech was "memorable" and that it "has gotten good reviews, for content and hitting the right pitch".

A Plum Line editorial in the Washington Post commented: "The Tucson speech may go down as one of the most important of Barack Obama's presidency, so it's worth nailing down its most important accomplishment: He finally got conservatives to listen to what he had to say - about them.

In Slate, legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick wrote that "President Obama’s speech in Tucson last night should be ranked with his greatest oratorical moments, largely because in the end he was brave enough to sidestep politics and ideology, and speak instead of love, and family, and the need for kindness."

Kent Ward of the Bangor Daily News called it "arguably as fine a speech as he has made in his ceremonial role as head of state."

Political science professor Clifford Orwin of the University of Toronto wrote that "Mr. Obama rose above tacky surroundings to deliver the best speech of his career."