A UK look at Obama, the Tucson Tragedy and Violence in America

The Independent


Rupert Cornwell: A pitch-perfect response restores Obama's stature

The aftermath of Tucson showed the President at his best – while his rival appeared combative and petty


"Perhaps the saddest thing about last weekend's slaughter in Tucson is that, in statistical terms, it was pretty routine as US shooting sprees go. Six people died, the same number as in the attack at an Amish school in Pennsylvania in October 2006, when a milk truck driver killed five little girls before turning his gun on himself.

"That tragedy is remembered, like the killing of 12 soldiers at the Fort Hood army base in November 2009, mainly because of the particular communities that fell victim. But what about the massacre of nine people at a Nebraska supermarket in December 2007? Or the eight who died at the hands of an angry former employee at a Connecticut beer distributor last August? Or the seven students gunned down at a Minnesota high school in 2005, or the six who were killed at an Illinois university campus in February 2008?"

and...

"The most probable, and one that is already discernible, is a change in public perceptions of the President. The speech at the service for the victims was delivered by the Barack Obama we were promised in his wondrous 2008 campaign, the unifying leader standing above the partisan fray – but who seemed to stoke that fray during his first two years in office.

"Even conservative commentators agreed the President was pitch-perfect. The similarities between Obama now and Bill Clinton in the dark months after the 1994 midterm defeat of his Democratic party have been much remarked on. Clinton truly acquired presidential stature when he led the country through the trauma of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the following year cruised to re-election. The same may happen with Obama; his approval ratings have already jumped since the Tucson shootings.

"In his speech, the President singled out no one for blame, telling both left and right not to play politics with the tragedy. And there may be a softening of the debate in the next few weeks. But, one suspects, not for long. Elections are fast approaching. Which, inevitably, brings me to Sarah Palin.

"She has not had, shall we say, a good Tucson. It is now generally accepted that Loughner was not inspired by Palin. But a deeper question remains. The trappings of her online video reaction to the shootings were deliberately presidential. But the style wasn't. She was combative and petty. She may have delighted her followers, but surely no one else. I have always been doubtful she would run in 2012. Those doubts are stronger now than ever."


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/rupert-cornwell/rupert-cornwell-a-pitchperfect-response-restores-obamas-stature-2185627.html