Obama Seeks Political Advantage from Arizona Tragedy

President Barack Obama's capacity for hypocrisy knows no bounds.  Addressing the nation from Arizona, a state whose citizen's he has ridiculed, brow beaten and sued,  he forgot it all and was true to his chameleon like form, claiming no role for the current political strife in the nation and subtly suggesting his opposition was responsible for a mentally ill person of no party affiliation who shot to death Republicans, Democrats and children.

"Obama settled on a theme of challenging the country to have a debate that is worthy of those who died. He tapped into the raging debate about the role of incendiary rhetoric without dwelling on it.

Right.  Look, this guy wants his critics to go away, and thinks people dying in Arizona gets it done.

"Let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy. It did not," the president said.

Yeah.  Who is the instigator of the unrest we find in the country today? Whose policies were forced through against the will of the people?   Whose Deputy Chief of Staff, in commenting to Democrat congressmen over their troubled town hall meetings, offered them the following:

"If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard"

and who was the President who gave us this quote:

"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun".

Not exactly a reach across the isle kind of guy.

After offering personal accounts of every person who died, he challenged anyone listening to think of how to honor their memories, and he was not shy about offering direction. He admonished against any instinct to point blame or to drift into political pettiness or to latch onto simple explanations that may have no merit.

Whose party looked to blame this shooting on Sarah Palin, Mr. President?

"At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do — it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds," the president said."

Most people would be ashamed to try to make political hay out of this tragedy.  Not so for Mr. Obama.  That's quite enough, Mr. President.  Leave off giving advice to others and focus on taking it for yourself.

Update

The always reliable Bobby B has a similar assessment of the President's efforts to teach the nation about civility... something akin to don't piss in my ear and tell me it's raining. He's done. He doesn't want to argue any more, no sense in talking to people that aren't going to listen.

I empathezize with Bob and hear his "Don't throw your pearls before swine" wisdom. For my part, I'm not quite there yet. I still am willing to argue the conservative side, not that I will ever convince the die-hard types that have no trust in the people but place all their trust in government, but for others that may read the argument and be encouraged by it.

Update II
Blog pal Ilion has entered the fray with some interesting comments on the inconsistencies of the left leaning world view. Catch it here.

- 'The 39 Steps' Open Thread

   What did you think?

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Auburn Wins National Championship in Barn-Burner

Freshman running back Michael Dyer celebrates a late game run with teammates.

In a match-up that  most experts had expected would be a shoot out, the University of Auburn Tigers defeated the University of Oregon Ducks 22-19 in a tightly fought game to win the NCAA National Football Championship. The Duck's wide-open, no-huddle spread option offense had been racking up 304 rushing yards and 49 points per game. Their fast pace and frequent risk taking had opposing defenses on their heels. Their consistently productive drives and relentless style had opponents approaching exhaustion by the end of the third quarter, allowing the Duck offense to pour on the yards and points as they closed out their opposition.

Two factors minimized the effectiveness of the Ducks 'blur' offense, the first being the Auburn defense, which was significantly more stout up the middle and fast to the edges than any prior Duck opponent. Oregon's efforts to run the ball between the tackles on various option reads was more often than not stymied at the line of scrimmage or tackled for a loss by the Auburn defenders. Equally effective in reducing Oregon's offensive production was Auburn's own offense, which had the capacity to sustain long drives and keep the Ducks off the field, giving the Tiger defense the chance to keep fresh as the game wound down.

The classic confrontation occured in the third quarter. Auburn had stopped Oregon near mid-field when the aggressive Ducks ran the ball off a fake punt formation, gaining 11 yards and the first down. Auburn's defense had to return to the field and were immediately placed under pressure by a long pass from Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas, who completed it to receiver Lavsier Tuinei to reach the Auburn 3 yard line. From there Oregon attempted to power the ball in for the go ahead touchdown. With their backs against the wall and facing the high powered Ducks offense, the Auburn defense stuffed the first three attempts, yielding only two yards and leaving the Ducks at 4th and goal from the one. The next play saw Oregon test the middle of the Auburn defense again. As Oregon's Kenjon Barner found out, it's rather difficult to run the ball between the tackles when you are running against Auburn's defense. Stuffed for no gain, the ball was turned over on downs.

Auburn to play Oregon for National Championship

Self-Loathing West Hides Its Face From the Truth

Reading David Warren is like taking a trip abroad with a very pleasant companion. His thoughtful and insightful pieces have the smell of the far off places that he has known. His desire to see the world for what it is illuminates his work. His latest piece reflects upon the troubles of the Middle-east and the lack of effort exerted by the West to understand and know what is going on.

"Worse, the flow of good information even to the U.S. White House and State Department has largely dried up. This is because the providers of it -- scholars who were actually reading and excerpting transcripts from Arabic, Persian, Turkish -- were successfully demonized as "orientalists" and "neo-conservatives" and successively pushed out of their (typically Pentagon) offices. So that at the highest levels of government in the West, the attitude is now, "We don't want to know."

It is the business of the Pentagon and the State Department to understand the world we live in, and the threats that loom before us. An administration and an entire Western culture that does not seek to know the truth fails its people.

The Constitution of the United States

The House Republicans followed through on their promise to read the US Constitution in its entirety, over the objections of the House Democrats who had claimed it was a waste of their time.

I love the way the preamble begins, with the first three words so boldly: "We the People..." It is such a strong reminder that our nation is not a nation designed so that the government controls the people, but rather we are a nation whose people control their government.  It is the striking difference between our nation and all others that existed at its time. Over the last hundred years the growth of Federal powers and the ever increasing expansion of Federal regulatory agencies has placed into question the basis upon which this nation was founded. The love of power and the arrogant belief in big government is fully embraced by President Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Congress.

In the event, the reading was shared by both parties, though with markedly less enthusiasm on the part of the Democrats:

For the first hour of the recital the Republican side of the chamber was full, while far fewer Democrats occupied the other side.

Why am I not surprised?

- 'The Graduate' Open Thread

     What did you think?

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