Obama's speech @ memorial service

[rbell]

All in all, he did quite nicely, IMO.

Yep, I know....no Obama fan here normally, but he did what a President should do...inspire the country.

I'm sure I could dissect the speech and find stuff that didn't sit perfectly well...but on the scope of what he could have said...(think about MSNBC's commentators)...he recognized that this wasn't the time or place.

It didn't measure up to Reagan's address after the Challenger disaster, but IMO it was better than Clinton's address after the Oklahoma City bombing. Of course...no one's been close to the Gettysburg Address, when it comes to presidential addresses after national tragedies...


(can you tell I'm a Presidential History nerd?)

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

All in all, he did quite nicely, IMO.

Yep, I know....no Obama fan here normally, but he did what a President should do...inspire the country.

I'm sure I could dissect the speech and find stuff that didn't sit perfectly well...but on the scope of what he could have said...(think about MSNBC's commentators)...he recognized that this wasn't the time or place.

It didn't measure up to Reagan's address after the Challenger disaster, but IMO it was better than Clinton's address after the Oklahoma City bombing. Of course...no one's been close to the Gettysburg Address, when it comes to presidential addresses after national tragedies...


(can you tell I'm a Presidential History nerd?)

Thanks rbell for a sign of even handedness! Brilliant, and I agree with you!

BTW, where would you rank FDR's 'Day of Infamy' speech?

 

[Bro. Curtis]

He started out great. He gave tribute to each victim, and left politics out. It was what I thought he needed to do.

However, the crowd was disrespectful & obnoxious. That is not his fault, but the constant applause & cat calls put him in campaign mode. He cannot help himself.

Perhaps they should hold these kinds of events in a more intimate setting. That way he can complete a sentence, without the din of the swooning hordes.

 

[SpiritualMadMan]

A note was made on a more lib than right talk show on the way to work that obamas speech was noticeably longer than any other prez' national crisis speeches thus taking away from the event and making it "his" event.

The unrulyness of the crowd points to the issue that it was more a political event than a memorial service.

The prez *could* have set the tone when it first happened...

But, he didn't...

 

[North Carolina Tentmaker]

I did not watch the event but did read President Obama's speech. I am no fan of his but I thought he did good.

 

[rbell]

He started out great. He gave tribute to each victim, and left politics out. It was what I thought he needed to do.

However, the crowd was disrespectful & obnoxious. That is not his fault, but the constant applause & cat calls put him in campaign mode. He cannot help himself.

Perhaps they should hold these kinds of events in a more intimate setting. That way he can complete a sentence, without the din of the swooning hordes.

I think setting is important.

People were put in an arena that is a pure concert/entertainment setting.

Even the rowdiest of folks would have likely been more subdued/introspective/reverent had this been in, say, the National Cathedral in DC.

Not sure they really had an option, venue-wise. But I think that affected the crowd.

Not to mention, you're putting together two different situations: mourning for the dead, and rooting for the surviving. There's not an easy way to "shift gears" IMO.

(But back to your point...yes, the continuous appluase interruptions got old).

 

[rbell]

BTW, where would you rank FDR's 'Day of Infamy' speech?

Hmm...I think that his speech was more about "I'm making it official: Here's what we're going to do," than a speech meant to inspire the country.

But then again...we were attacked (unprovoked), our enemy was known to us; the course was clear. Our country was already inspired. Our course was clear.

It wasn't, as in Reagan's Challenger situation, a case of a tragedy we couldn't retaliate for.

It wasn't, as in Bush's 9/11 situation, a case in which our enemy was absolutely clear and known to us at that time.


But, having said that...of course it was a good speech IMO; a notch under Gettysburg and the Challenger speech; but probably better then Clinton's OKC speech.

But all the aforementioned ones were good examples of a President doing what a President should do in time of national tragedy.

 

[carpro]

All in all, he did quite nicely, IMO.

Yep, I know....no Obama fan here normally, but he did what a President should do...

The real Obama will show up later. He is what he is and he can't suppress it for long.