Obama Comforts a Nation

In his speech in Arizona, Obama showed himself to be a leader worthy of this great nation and worthy of this difficult time.

FrumForum readers know I have been quite critical of President Obama’s speeches and oratory. He’s been vastly overrated as an orator, I’ve argued, and too often has missed the historical moment.

But like most commentators, I’m pleased to report that the president this evening delivered a very fine speech, his best since 2004 when he told the Democratic National Convention:

there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of America.

Obama tonight, likewise, rose above petty, partisan politics to summon the better angels of our nature “so that we can bequeath the American dream to future generations.”

He paid tribute to the fallen, those who were killed in a senseless act of horrific violence: Judge John Roll, Dorothy Morris, Phyllis Schneck, Dorwan Stoddard, Gabe Zimmerman and nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green.

And he gave thanks for those who survived: 13 Americans, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

“Our friend Gabby courageously fights to recover even as we speak,” Obama said. And “I can tell you this:

She knows we’re here; and she knows we love her; and she knows that we will be rooting for her throughout what will be a difficult journey.

Obama also paid tribute to the heroes among us, those who acted to save lives in the aftermath of the violence:

[young] Daniel Hernandez, a volunteer in Gabby’s office who ran through the chaos to minister to his boss, tending to her wounds to keep her alive…

petite 61-year-old Patricia Maisch, who wrestled away the killer’s ammunition, undoubtedly saving some lives; and…

the doctors and nurses and emergency medics who worked wonders to heal those who’d been hurt.

These men and women remind us that heroism is found not only on the fields of battle. They remind us that heroism does not require special training or physical strength.

Heroism is all around us in the hearts of so many of our fellow citizens, just waiting to be summoned -- as it was on Saturday morning.

The President then did some summoning of his own: “How can we honor the fallen?” he asked. “How can we be true to their memory?”

Not by “pointing fingers or assigning blame,” but only by recognizing that our fates as Americans are inextricably linked. “Our hopes and dreams are bound together.”

“What we can’t do,” he said, “is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues [-- i.e., what might have precipitated or prevented the massacre in Tucson] -- let each of us do so with a good dose of humility.”

Because “scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding.”

Obama is exactly right about this; and his point here is deeply and profoundly conservative. “Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath.”

This is a clear and explicit rebuke to those, on both the Left and the Right, who have been trying to use the Tucson massacre as a vehicle to score political points. Don’t do that, Obama said in effect. ‘That’s wrong and unhelpful. I’m not going to go there.’

And he didn’t.

Instead, the President urged us “to look forward: to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships with those who are still with us.

We may ask ourselves if we’ve shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order.

We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame -- but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others.

Amen. These are simple but beautiful and poetic lines, beautifully delivered. And so, when I heard Obama say this, I thought: “Surely, this is the high point of his speech. He can’t be any more eloquent than this.”

I was wrong. The best was yet to come: Because Obama concluded his speech with an impassioned commitment to young nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green and the future of America.

Imagine,” he said:

Here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future.

She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model.

She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -- we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations [emphasis added].

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who got a tear in his eye when he heard the President say this.

We adults are always telling our children, our nieces and nephews, that we expect them to live up to our expectations. Yet too many of us in the media and political worlds, on both the Left and the Right, have been failing our children.

Our children, after all, see America as a great and wonderful place, full of immense hope and opportunity. Yet we in the media and political worlds have too often reduced our democracy to a vicious game of partisan name-calling and ideological score-settling.

Obama tonight refused to play that game. He rejected the anger and the vitriol, and the politics of hate and division. Instead, he embraced a politics of hope and promise.

“If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping them,” Obama said. “And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves, as Americans, to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.”

Amen.

In short, Obama tonight took command. He showed himself to be above petty, partisan politics. He showed that he understood the historical moment.  He showed himself to be a leader worthy of this great nation and worthy of this difficult time.

Let us hope that the same inner strength and wisdom that the President summoned forth tonight can be captured and applied again to the immense difficulties and challenges that yet lie ahead.

I know that I’m certainly rooting for him. And so, too, I believe, are most Americans.

John Guardiano blogs at www.ResoluteCon.Com, and you can follow him on Twitter: @JohnRGuardiano.

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