Eugene Robinson:Obama: consoler in chief

[cal04]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/01/obama_consoler_in_chief.html

In Tucson tonight, President Obama played the role that all presidents must play at times of great tragedy: consoler in chief. His speech at the memorial service for the victims of Saturday's massacre seemed not to come from a speechwriter's pen, but from the heart.

Asking whether it "helped" or "hurt" the president politically seems petty. After he described how Rep. Gabriel Giffords' husband, Mark, had just visited her and announced that "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time," politics vanished. At a moment of great sorrow, there was a glimpse of the kinder, gentler America that Obama described -- an America in which "we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."

The most touching parts of the speech, for me, came near the end, when he talked about how families react on losing a parent or a spouse -- when he said that "in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame -- but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better."

The parts of the speech that seemed to touch Obama most were the passages about Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl who was killed Saturday. There was passion in his eyes when, talking about Christina, he challenged us to "do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations." He seemed moved when he imagined that "if there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today."