Words are Nice (But Never Nearly Enough)

Jules Crittenden is way more charitable than I've been, "Great Words, Great Deeds"

It was a good speech. He said all the right things and didn’t say any of the wrong ones. White House transcript. It’s being hailed as the “best ever,” but they seem to say that every time he opens his mouth. Unlike his other great rhetorical moments, no one gets thrown under the bus in this one. He could have gone farther than “more incomprehensible” in my view, as there is nothing really incomprehensible about it at all. We’re a long way down this road. We’ve been here before.

But after that sopping drivel about diversity and being unwilling to speculate, it was good to see something close to an acknowledgement that this was an act of war, and that these soldiers died in combat. It was masterfully lawyerly in skating close to that line. Which is why it was not a great speech. A great speech would have ended with Obama awarding Purple Hearts. Perhaps a denunciation of treason, or for a better rhetorical note, an expression of deep and profound sadness that from within the embrace of America, treachery and cowardice can yet emerge. Perhaps some praise for such a great nation that, quite apart from the official incompetence that enabled the killings, accepted even the killer up to the moment of his deadly act, and in the wake of repeated provocations, has been restrained and measured in its response. With few and isolated acts of bigotry and vigilante violence.

Read the whole thing (you don't want to miss the additional discussion of the deeds).