Obama Should Heed His Own Advice

President Obama gave his best speech of both his candidacy and presidency at the Tucson Memorial to commemorate that senseless massacre. The president urged Americans to stop playing the blame game and pointing the finger to earn political points over this horrific event. Obama said “The truth is, none of us can know what triggered this vicious attack. What we cannot do, is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on each other.” Thus, it is irresponsible and fruitless to dwell on the past without proposing concrete evidence or solutions to fix the problem. Deep down even Obama understands that those using the Tucson attack for political gain are no better than the shooter. Think about it; those that are passing judgment without any evidence are creating more partisanship, polarity, and division amongst Americans. After all, our Constitution states we are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. And what’s worse is the actions of passing blame are only spreading more fear, anger, and hate – exactly what that coward Jared Loughner accomplished when he opened fire on a crowd of defenseless Americans. Most Left media outlets wrongly placed the blame on Sarah Palin and her target map for inciting Loughner to commit this heinous act. And now Palin is receiving dozens of death threats daily. Is this the civility and atmosphere the Left wants to create? I would certainly hope not.

The problem with President Obama’s speech is that he has been the worst offender for creating an environment of partisan politics. No president in the history of our great nation has played the blame game and used excuses to the extent that Obama has. Over two years into his Presidency and Obama and the Democrats in Congress continue to blame George W. Bush for our economic woes and even the lack of progress in Afghanistan. But the fact of the matter is that Obama has implemented his own policies to overcome these problems and they have failed to yield any credible results. In fact, Obama has thrown more money at these problems than any President in our history and it has solved nothing.

Leadership starts at the top, and if the President and Congress are playing partisan politics and blaming each other for their personal failures, this behavior is passed along to their constituents. Thus, President Obama and Congress are very much responsible for creating the polarizing and divisive atmosphere in the United States. If President Obama would heed his own advice given in the Tucson speech, it would go a long way in healing our national polarity. There is no better leadership quality than to lead by example. This means our federal government leaders need to stop the actions of blaming, of making excuses, of lacking personal accountability, of lacking personal responsibility, and lacking commonsense.

So yes, I thought Obama gave a great and appropriate speech based on the circumstances. But until Obama leads by example and heeds his own advice, the political gridlock in our country will only continue to deteriorate.