Though Obama has been vocal on the shooting that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in critical condition after she was shot in the head at point-blank range, many viewed the speech as a crucial moment in his presidency.
Sam Stein of the Huffington Post notes that Obama brought humanity back to the Giffords story--something he argues has been lost in recent days and replaced with "something far more callous."
"Even as the president spoke, a debate waged among twitter and cable pundits as to whether the tone of the memorial was somehow off-putting. Earlier that morning, Sarah Palin had accused the media of 'blood libel' for casting her in the role of cheerleader for the extremists.
It was, as if, the actual shootings had become secondary players -- as if the human element had been lost in a political drama."
But when discussing 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, Stein writes, "it was impossible not to think of the President as a father, gripped by doubt as to whether he could respond to a similar tragedy."
In "Through Christina's Eyes," Marc Ambinder of the National Journal also notes the significance of Obama's discussion of Green.
"By using the youngest victim of last week's rampage as his focal point, Obama made her America's cause and asked the nation to live lives as compassionate and caring as those felled by the gunman's bullets. Without wading into the who-coarsened-our-culture debate, he overshadowed it with a call to the better angels of our nature," he wrote.
Time magazine's Joe Klein also highlights the familial tone Obama took.
"Obama spoke to the city of Tucson, and to the United States of America, not so much as our President tonight, but as a member of our family," he wrote, describing Obama's role as a son to his elders, a brother to fellow public servants and a father to Green and other young Americans like her.
Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, a non-partisan publication that analyzes legislative races, and a former GOP political consultant, said the president gave “his most effective performance since he was elected.”
“This is the first speech I’ve heard since he was running for president that I think he actually made an emotional impact on the audience he was talking to,” he said noting that the president was successful in not sounding like a “Harvard professor.” “[H]e could actually emote, actually have some empathy and actually articulate what most Americans wanted their president to say. I think he accomplished that.”
Klein also comments on the change in the president's tone.
"It was a remarkably personal speech, effortlessly sweeping away any notion of pomposity, over-intellectuality or distance. It was written and delivered in plain English. It summoned images, and emotions, that every American--even those who cannot countenance his legitimacy--could relate to and be moved by," he wrote.
Mother Jones' Washington Bureau Chief David Corn called it a "high moment of his presidency."
"The Obama Hate Machine better pray that Obama doesn't get other chances to address the nation in this manner…[I]t is in these moments that presidents can define themselves—especially for those voters who do not pay attention to the daily tussles of politics and policy. Obama did that well on Wednesday night, and the Obama haters must hate that."
James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic and former speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, deemed the speech a success because it was "hopeful and positive, even joyous, rather than morose."
"Obama turned this into a celebration -- of the people who were killed, of the values they lived by, and of the way their example could bring out the better in all of us and in our country," Fallows wrote.
Arizona Central's Bill Goodykoontz pointed out that Obama took the high road.
"Obama rose above the sniping, the blame and the deflection of same, elevating the debate by not taking part in it," he wrote.
Perhaps Time magazine's Michael Crowley put it most eloquently, "These call to our better angels -- directed less at the secondary issue of public discourse and more at the first principles of what we value as a society and the nobility of public service, perfectly matched the heartbreaking occasion. All the better that Obama delivered these words with both lyrical eloquence and moral authority. It was certainly the finest rhetorical moment of his presidency -- and perhaps of his life."
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