Campaign Stop

It was expected that the Messiah would appear at the Tucson memorial service for the six victims of the mass shooting in Tucson. It was totally appropriate. A member of Congress, a congressional aide, a federal judge, a 9-year old girl and a dozen others were shot by a loon who quite clearly should have been under lock and key with heavy meds if bureaucrats had been doing their jobs.

I will confess that my aversion to the man overcame my professional responsibility last night. I simply could not bear to watch the ping-pong match presentation style as he shifts from left to right to left teleprompters in his chin-up Mussolini profile uttering platitudes. There was considerable hype about this being a defining moment for the man. He could redeem the empty campaign promise of bi-partisanship. He could demonstrate a disavowal for the empty rhetoric and duplicitous linkages of his own party. He could speak without politics about a loss, shattered lives, and a brighter future. Or this:

Or he could make it a campaign stop. That is what he and his crew know how to do much better than leading a nation. I caught him working the rope-line, shaking hands, grinning, posing for photo-ops and uttering those little sweet nothings which politicians do to potential voters to make them feel "special."

But, have you ever in your life gone to a funeral or memorial service and come back with a commemorative T-shirt?