TUCSON, Ariz. — President Barack Obama flew to Arizona
Wednesday and headed straight to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords'
bedside to pay his respects to the wounded lawmaker as he
sought to unify a mourning nation.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, were visiting privately at University
Medical Center with Giffords and other victims of the weekend
shootings that killed six people and wounded 13. He was then
meeting with family members of those killed before speaking at a
nighttime memorial service in Tucson.
"The president wanted to begin this solemn trip by stopping first
at the hospital where Congresswoman Giffords and others
continue to recuperate," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs
told reporters traveling with the president. Giffords was the target
of the first assassination attempt on a member of Congress in
decades.
Searching for the right tone in the evening service, Obama aimed
to console the country, not dissect its politics.
Video: Giffords’ family ‘elated’ with her recovery
A bipartisan delegation of lawmakers, including Rep. Ben Quayle,
R-Ariz., accompanied him on Air Force One in a sign of solidarity.
Quayle had called Obama the "worst president in history."
Back on Capitol Hill, Giffords' House colleagues praised her and
the other shooting victims and insisted that violence would not
silence democracy.
"We will have the last word," declared new House Speaker John
Boehner. He fought back tears as he described Giffords' battle to
recover from Saturday's gunshot wound to her head.
Obama was again playing the role of national consoler that
comes to all presidents and, in rare times, helps define them.
He drew on his own somber experience, following the shooting
rampage by one of the military's own members at the Fort Hood
army post in 2009. Then, as expected now, Obama focused his
comments on how the victims led their lives.
The president fine-tuned his speech as he flew across the
country. He was to be the last speaker at the event at the
University of Arizona's basketball arena. His speech was to last up
to 18 minutes, NBC News reported.
"The president will devote a significant portion of his remarks to
the memory of the victims," Gibbs told NBC News. "He'll also
reflect on how all of us might best honor their memory in our
own lives."
His main mission was to give a warm and honorable portrait of
the six people who were killed at Giffords' community outreach
gathering last Saturday. Their stories have already taken hold in a
country consumed by this sad story; among those who died
were a 9-year-old-girl, a prominent judge and an aide to Giffords
who was engaged to be married.
Obama was expected to speak about the courage of those who
intervened to tackle the gunman and help the wounded. He was
also assuring grieving families that the country was behind them.
And to those grasping for answers, Obama was likely explore
how "we can come together as a stronger nation" in the
aftermath of the tragedy, as he put it earlier this week.
In times of calamity, the country has long turned to its presidents
for the right words of assurance. It is test of leadership that
comes with the job.
Video: Pal: Mug shot shows ‘monster,’ not Loughner
Recent history recalls George W. Bush with a bullhorn amid the
rubble of Sept. 11, 2001, Bill Clinton's leadership after the
Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and Ronald Reagan's response
to the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, when he
spoke about being "pained to the core."
For Obama, the most instructive lesson may be one from his
own presidency.
He led the memorial at Fort Hood, trying to help a shaken nation
cope with a mass shooting that left 13 people dead and more
than two dozen wounded. He spent the first part of that speech
naming the people who had been killed and describing how they
spent their lives; he used the second half to remind everyone of
American endurance and justice.
The shootings, apparently a brazen attempt to kill a member of
Congress, shattered a Saturday event Giffords had organized
outside a grocery as a way for her constituents to chat with her.
Story: Arizona shooting victims
Threats against lawmakers are not uncommon, but violence is
rare. The last killing of a serving member of Congress was in
November 1978, when Rep. Leo Ryan, a California Democrat,
was murdered in the South American jungle of Guyana while
investigating the Jonestown cult.
The Arizona episode has sparked a broader debate, unfolding in
the media for days, about whether the vitriol of today's politics
played a role. Obama has long called for the importance of more
civil political discourse, but he has made no comments on that in
connection to this shooting, and he was not expected to choose
Wednesday night's event as the forum to do so.
Police say the man accused of the shootings, 22-year-old Jared
Lee Loughner, shot Giffords as well as many in the line of people
waiting to talk with her. The attack ended when bystanders
tackled the man. He is in jail on federal charges as police continue
to investigate.
Four days after the shootings, Giffords was making small
movements on her own. The three-term Democrat was
expected to live. Obama was joined on Air Force One by
Republican members of Arizona's congressional delegation,
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Supreme Court Justice
Anthony Kennedy, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
By mid-afternoon, the university said 17,000 people were in line
for the event, exceeding the arena's intended capacity. Overflow
seating was set up at the school's football stadium, with a video
of the proceedings to be played on the scoreboard screen.
Source: Http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41043078/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
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