When he goes to Arizona today, President Barack
Obama will confront a moment of national pain
that presents him with a chance to establish a
new bond with the American people.
The task of giving expression to shared grief and
connecting it with a broader purpose has
provided some of the most durable imagery of
recent presidencies: Ronald Reagan addressing
the nation on the day of the Challenger space
shuttle explosion, Bill Clinton with the families of
bombing victims in Oklahoma City, and George
W. Bush amid the smoldering rubble of the
World Trade Center.
Obama has acknowledged a public perception of
his “remoteness and detachment.” The speech he
is scheduled to give tonight at a memorial service
for victims of the Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson
demands that he convey empathy and allows
him to show a new facet of leadership, said
historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
“His reputation is more as a cerebral speaker,”
Goodwin said. “This is not a moment that calls
for cerebral talk. It calls for emotional connection
and bringing these people to life. Then maybe it
changes the way we think about him. ”
One of the ways presidents come to be seen as
leaders of the nation as a whole, rather than of an
individual political party, is by expressing
common emotions.
If he rises to the moment, “it adds another
dimension to his leadership,” Goodwin said.
“When you can connect to the people and people
feel that connection, it gives you an added
resource. ”
Central Theme
A central theme of Obama’s rise to national
prominence was a call to national unity and a
more civil discourse.
In the 2004 Democratic National Convention
speech that introduced him to much of the
American public, Obama used his life story as the
product of a mixed-race marriage to call for
overcoming partisan and cultural divisions. In
office, he has lamented that he hasn ’t been able
meet that promise.
“It’s time for him to be seen as someone who’s
bringing the country together, which is what
people want, ” said Bill Carrick, a Democratic
communications strategist. “In this instance, it’s
very important for him to be seen as someone
who is coming to this community to comfort
them. ”
Broad Resonance
Six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a
federal judge, were killed and 14 were injured in a
shooting spree that police say targeted U.S.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona
Democrat. Giffords remains in critical condition
with a gunshot wound to her head.
While the slayings weren’t terrorist attacks like the
1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City or the Sept. 11 strike at
the World Trade Center, the setting at a
supermarket gives the violence a broad
resonance, Carrick said.
“Almost everyone can identify with that
Saturday-morning- going-to-the-grocery-store
ritual, ” he said. “This is what makes it universal
and so compelling.”
Presidential responses to political violence have
been threaded with concerns about the tone of
civil discourse.
After an anarchist assassinated William McKinley,
Theodore Roosevelt in his first address to
Congress spoke against “the reckless utterances
of those who, on the stump and in the public
press, appeal to the dark and evil spirits of malice
and greed, envy and sullen hatred. ” Five days
after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon
Johnson went before Congress to call for “an end
to the teaching and the preaching of hate and evil
and violence. ”
‘Never Forget Them’
In recent decades, presidents have stressed
symbolism and the personal stories of victims in
their response to tragedy.
Reagan, an actor trained in conveying emotion
through his voice, connected the 1986 Challenger
tragedy to the nation ’s traditional celebration of
exploration: “We will never forget them, nor the
last time we saw them, this morning, as they
prepared for their journey and waved goodbye
and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch
the face of God.’”
Clinton in Oklahoma City condemned the “terrible
sin” committed against victims who “were also
neighbors and friends. You saw them at church
or the PTA meetings, at the civic clubs, at the
ballpark. ” He told the country, “One thing we owe
those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge
ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to
this evil. ”
At Ground Zero, Bush grasped a bullhorn to
assure rescue workers that there would be
retribution: “I can hear you! The rest of the world
hears you! And the people -- and the people who
knocked these buildings down will hear all of us
soon !”
Partisan Battle
Obama’s task in Tucson is complicated by the
partisan skirmishing that already has begun over
how to interpret the actions of the 22-year-old
man accused of the shooting, Jared Lee
Loughner.
In the aftermath of the shooting, some public
officials, including Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff
Clarence Dupnik, have criticized the harsh rhetoric
of right-wing talk show hosts. Citing rifle-sight
crosshairs that Sarah Palin ’s Facebook page used
to identify 20 targeted congressional races in the
November midterm elections, including Giffords’s
contest, and a Twitter posting by Palin that urged
Republicans not to “retreat” but to “reload,”
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois told CNN that such
words and images “invite the kind of toxic
rhetoric that can lead unstable people to believe
this is an acceptable response. ”
Political figures on the right have countered that
their critics are seeking to exploit the tragedy.
Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said yesterday
that Democrats were seeking to “to turn it into a
political advantage” and that doing so was
“beneath contempt.”
‘Careful Line’
Obama “has to walk a careful line in which he’s
not accusing but talking about our common
responsibilities for a political discourse, ” said
Wayne Fields, director of American cultural
studies at Washington University in St. Louis and
author of “Union of Words: A History of
Presidential Eloquence.”
A president needs to be seen as a unifying, rather
than a divisive, figure after a tragedy, Fields said.
“The unique role of the office is that they speak
for the union, the familial connection between all
of us, ” he said.
Source: Http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-12/obama-in-arizona-means-moment-to-alter-image-of-detachment-with-empathy.html
Obama will confront a moment of national pain
that presents him with a chance to establish a
new bond with the American people.
The task of giving expression to shared grief and
connecting it with a broader purpose has
provided some of the most durable imagery of
recent presidencies: Ronald Reagan addressing
the nation on the day of the Challenger space
shuttle explosion, Bill Clinton with the families of
bombing victims in Oklahoma City, and George
W. Bush amid the smoldering rubble of the
World Trade Center.
Obama has acknowledged a public perception of
his “remoteness and detachment.” The speech he
is scheduled to give tonight at a memorial service
for victims of the Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson
demands that he convey empathy and allows
him to show a new facet of leadership, said
historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
“His reputation is more as a cerebral speaker,”
Goodwin said. “This is not a moment that calls
for cerebral talk. It calls for emotional connection
and bringing these people to life. Then maybe it
changes the way we think about him. ”
One of the ways presidents come to be seen as
leaders of the nation as a whole, rather than of an
individual political party, is by expressing
common emotions.
If he rises to the moment, “it adds another
dimension to his leadership,” Goodwin said.
“When you can connect to the people and people
feel that connection, it gives you an added
resource. ”
Central Theme
A central theme of Obama’s rise to national
prominence was a call to national unity and a
more civil discourse.
In the 2004 Democratic National Convention
speech that introduced him to much of the
American public, Obama used his life story as the
product of a mixed-race marriage to call for
overcoming partisan and cultural divisions. In
office, he has lamented that he hasn ’t been able
meet that promise.
“It’s time for him to be seen as someone who’s
bringing the country together, which is what
people want, ” said Bill Carrick, a Democratic
communications strategist. “In this instance, it’s
very important for him to be seen as someone
who is coming to this community to comfort
them. ”
Broad Resonance
Six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a
federal judge, were killed and 14 were injured in a
shooting spree that police say targeted U.S.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona
Democrat. Giffords remains in critical condition
with a gunshot wound to her head.
While the slayings weren’t terrorist attacks like the
1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City or the Sept. 11 strike at
the World Trade Center, the setting at a
supermarket gives the violence a broad
resonance, Carrick said.
“Almost everyone can identify with that
Saturday-morning- going-to-the-grocery-store
ritual, ” he said. “This is what makes it universal
and so compelling.”
Presidential responses to political violence have
been threaded with concerns about the tone of
civil discourse.
After an anarchist assassinated William McKinley,
Theodore Roosevelt in his first address to
Congress spoke against “the reckless utterances
of those who, on the stump and in the public
press, appeal to the dark and evil spirits of malice
and greed, envy and sullen hatred. ” Five days
after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon
Johnson went before Congress to call for “an end
to the teaching and the preaching of hate and evil
and violence. ”
‘Never Forget Them’
In recent decades, presidents have stressed
symbolism and the personal stories of victims in
their response to tragedy.
Reagan, an actor trained in conveying emotion
through his voice, connected the 1986 Challenger
tragedy to the nation ’s traditional celebration of
exploration: “We will never forget them, nor the
last time we saw them, this morning, as they
prepared for their journey and waved goodbye
and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch
the face of God.’”
Clinton in Oklahoma City condemned the “terrible
sin” committed against victims who “were also
neighbors and friends. You saw them at church
or the PTA meetings, at the civic clubs, at the
ballpark. ” He told the country, “One thing we owe
those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge
ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to
this evil. ”
At Ground Zero, Bush grasped a bullhorn to
assure rescue workers that there would be
retribution: “I can hear you! The rest of the world
hears you! And the people -- and the people who
knocked these buildings down will hear all of us
soon !”
Partisan Battle
Obama’s task in Tucson is complicated by the
partisan skirmishing that already has begun over
how to interpret the actions of the 22-year-old
man accused of the shooting, Jared Lee
Loughner.
In the aftermath of the shooting, some public
officials, including Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff
Clarence Dupnik, have criticized the harsh rhetoric
of right-wing talk show hosts. Citing rifle-sight
crosshairs that Sarah Palin ’s Facebook page used
to identify 20 targeted congressional races in the
November midterm elections, including Giffords’s
contest, and a Twitter posting by Palin that urged
Republicans not to “retreat” but to “reload,”
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois told CNN that such
words and images “invite the kind of toxic
rhetoric that can lead unstable people to believe
this is an acceptable response. ”
Political figures on the right have countered that
their critics are seeking to exploit the tragedy.
Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said yesterday
that Democrats were seeking to “to turn it into a
political advantage” and that doing so was
“beneath contempt.”
‘Careful Line’
Obama “has to walk a careful line in which he’s
not accusing but talking about our common
responsibilities for a political discourse, ” said
Wayne Fields, director of American cultural
studies at Washington University in St. Louis and
author of “Union of Words: A History of
Presidential Eloquence.”
A president needs to be seen as a unifying, rather
than a divisive, figure after a tragedy, Fields said.
“The unique role of the office is that they speak
for the union, the familial connection between all
of us, ” he said.
Source: Http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-12/obama-in-arizona-means-moment-to-alter-image-of-detachment-with-empathy.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment