This is President Obama's address at the memorial in Tucson. Here is the transcript of the address as given. It includes his riveting announcement that moments after he visited her, and as some of her congressional colleagues were in the room (including Nancy Pelosi), Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes for the first time. To this point the swelling prevented this. It is another good sign. Pelosi, now minority leader, was present at the memorial. Majority leader Boener was offered a seat on Air Force One to attend, but he stayed in Washington to attend a Republican political meeting.
Response to President Obama's speech has been mostly very positive. Here are some reactions. Jim Fallows is among those who call it one of his best and most lasting.
Those who watched the memorial in Arizona and across America may have taken note that one of the heroes honored, who sat with the First Family, is a Latino American. And one of the people who risked their lives to stop the shooter was a gray haired woman.
Some commentators differentiated between what he said about the civic community and what he said about each of the people who was killed, the heroes who aided the wounded and prevented the shooter from reloading, and everyone's personal reflections. What they missed apparently was how elegantly he threaded them together, paying off completely in the end when he talked about the nine year old who was killed, Christina Green. I will quote that part of the speech in another post.
However, I'll add this comment on it by Andrew Sullivan, because it was exactly the same thought that I had:
"Watching Christina Green's parents as the president speaks brings home the enormity of this crime. Making her brief nine years of life the focus for hope and inspiration is a lovely peroration. "I want America to be as good as [Christina] imagined it."
And one senses palpably that Obama's own love for his own daughters is behind this message."
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