All The World's A Stage

I realize that this post will go against the grain of the way we are supposed to act in the aftermath of the Tuscon tragedy, but I've never been that much of a PC guy anyway.

First, its been stated, ad nauseum, but all of the pundits who felt the need to blame the right for the shooting ought to be ashamed of themselves. They didn't wait to get any facts or even to learn of the final toll of victims. They just seized the opportunity to blame Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, the Tea Party and all of the other "usual suspects" for "inciting" the shooter due to "inflammatory rhetoric". Now that its clear that the shooter was not a right-winger, the lefty pundits have fallen back to their default position, gun control. They never tire of the same old stuff.

Second, the President's speech left me a little cold. Some have said that his speech was not the problem, but the crowd's "pep-rally" reaction that was to blame. But I have to disagree. This President cannot give a significant speech unless he has a large adoring crowd before him. The big difference between President Obama's speech and those given by Presidents Reagan and Clinton regarding the Challenger and Oklahoma City, was the setting. Reagan and Clinton gave their solemn but uplifting speeches from the Oval Office. No cheering crowds for them. Obama had to go to the scene, had to have t-shirts printed with a theme for his speech, had to give the speech in an auditorium. His words were fine, but the setting made the speech more about him than it should have been.

Third, the "no-aisle" idea for the State of the Union is pure BS. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I think its high time members of Congress spent their time and energy thinking up solutions to real problems, not trying to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya". This idea is nothing but show and is probably part of the Democrats' plan to keep the GOP from really trying to move its agenda. I expect to see efforts to do those things challenged as overly partisan, particularly in light of the "need to heal" after the Tuscon matter. Just do the job you were elected to do; leave the psychology to professionals.