Obama: A Human Being.

A very quick thought on Obama and the Jared Loughner shooting. My impression is that the speech Obama gave on the shooting, besides consoling the country, can have some positive effect for Obama himself. Because it is so civil, so non-partisan, so full of intelligence and genuinely tries to wrestle with the tragedy the way many people are wrestling with it, the speech can remind the public, conservatives included, that Obama is not some far-left inhuman monster. That he is a human being like them and that maybe the picture that has been painted of him these last two years is just wrong. Going forward, the image of the president as reasonable leader, who is liberal, but not out to ruin the country, will hopefully re-emerge. Actually, now that I think about it. With these last two months of accomplishment, this has already begun.

We don't know the facts yet.

This is the first post in quite a while. A lot of people have been reacting to tragic shooting of Congresswoman Giffords by pointing out the language of violence coming from the right for the past year or more. While I agree that it's reckless and the Limbaugh's and Palin's of the world don't seem to have any idea the kind of atmosphere they are creating, it's not clear how much Loughner was influenced by that atmosphere. From some of what we know he there are both right and left wing ideas in his life, and a former classmate knew him as "pretty left wing". We don't know the facts and my feeling is that some of the reactions are just a touch jumping to conclusions.