Glenn Beck: Obama Memorial Speech 'Best He Has Ever Given'

[moneill16]

Glenn Beck said that President Obama's speech at the memorial for the victims of the Arizona shooting was "the best speech he has ever given."
Speaking on his radio show Thursday, Beck had one caveat: Obama should have made his speech earlier.
"Last night, the president said what he should have said on Saturday," Beck said. "A leader says that on Day 1. But it is truly better late than never. This is probably the best speech he has ever given, and with all sincerity, thank you Mr. President, for becoming the president of the United States of America last night."

[internetto]

Glenn Beck is a dumbass.

[moneill16]

As President Obama was giving his speech in Tucson last night, I was headed to a TV studio, where I had a debate with the NRO's Cliff May about the speech as well as the state of political discourse in our nation. I had checked my twitter feed 20 seconds before I went on air live to get a feel of the atmosphere out there and immediately I saw both right and left voices for the most part praised it. I then conveyed that to Al-Jazeera English's audience.
[The debate I had with Cliff May was fun and although it wasn't the setting for a raucous discussion, I had to cut him off after he tried to equate the left with the vitriol and violence of the right that last few years. When I began making my points that the right has been way out of line and off the wall, May said that he had gotten so many death threats he needed bodyguards. This is Cliff May I'm talking about and I bet most readers don't even remember his disgraceful behavior during the Valerie Plame affair. He then started to get nervous when I began to list all the violence that had taken place since Obama was elected, including the Richard Poplawski shooting of three police officers, and he tried to cut me off.]
Back to the speech.
When the President talked about Gabby opening her eyes and young Christina Green's youthful outlook on public service, it was quite moving. It was a great speech -- his best since he became President -- and I hope it does some healing in Arizona and makes people start behaving differently. They know who they are, but I'm not confident that it will have the desired effect we'd wish. I think the constant cheering by the audience was a way to work out their grief and sadness and to deal with the tragedy; if ever a crowd needed something to cheer about, this was it.
John Boehner not showing up was very weird. He's Majority Leader now and should at least act like one. There were so many that made the trip and he stayed behind to go to an RNC function. Wow.
Fox News had on Brit Hume, Charles Krauthammer and Chris Wallace after the speech to dissect it, and although they thought it was rather long and the cheering made them uneasy, they all thought the President did a wonderful job. Wallace was insistent that while the speech was good, it won't have any lasting effect because the Republicans take control next week, but Krauthammer told the FOX panel that they shouldn't minimize the positive and lasting effect the speech will have on the American people. Sometimes he can make some astute observations when he wants to.
On the flip side, Rachel Maddow gave a very good analysis of the speech as she went through it piece by piece. Later on MSNBC had on Tom Brokaw, who is now their grand poobah and he also enjoyed the speech and tried to attach a historical perspective to it -- and then blasted Sarah Palin for her bizarre whining video. David Frum came on later and basically said her popularity after that video is like an iceberg melting on all sides. She blew her chance at rising above any petty complaint she had and tarnished her sinking image immeasurably.

[moneill16]

Apparently Chris Matthews doesn't follow any of Media Matters reporting or what David Neiwert and others have been documenting here at Crooks and Liars for some time now since he appeared to be completely unaware that there have been numerous assassination attempts where the perpetrators were fans of Glenn Beck.
Heaven forbid that might entail some time... you know... reading and researching a bit instead of talking over his guests or repeating the latest Villager common wisdom talking points of the day.
During a discussion about Sarah Palin's latest attempt to feign victim-hood to deflect criticism of her crosshairs map, Media Matters' David Brock pointed out to Matthews that yes, words do sometimes have real world consequences when it comes to riling up mentally unstable people who take to heart the type of eliminationist rhetoric we've seen from the likes of Palin and others, and in these cases, Glenn Beck.
 
BROCK: But this is not street theater, as you know.
Glenn Beck himself has been responsible for three thwarted assassination attempts this year. And Sarah Palin --
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: How is he responsible for them?
BROCK: Well, you want to know what they are?
MATTHEWS: You said it.
BROCK: Sure.
So, he burned Nancy Pelosi in effigy on his set. He tried to poison her with a chalice. OK. Some three weeks later, somebody tried to firebomb Nancy Pelosi`s house. That guy`s mother went on television and said he gets all his ideas from FOX News.
Do you know about Senator Patty Murray and the death threat that she got?
MATTHEWS: No. Go ahead.
BROCK: OK. It`s recorded. The guy says after the health care vote, he says, you have a target on your back and I can accomplish what I want to accomplish with one bullet.
He`s tried, convicted, and in the sentencing phase, his cousin writes in for leniency and she describes in a very chilling memo -- it`s on our Web site -- that he was slowly drawn into Glenn Beck`s world. And she portrays the guy, the attempted assassin, Charlie Wilson, as a victim of Beck.
And, number three, which you probably do know about, this liberal foundation in San Francisco was targeted by a gunman, Byron Williams, in June. The shooter gave jailhouse interviews -- and we published them -- and he says Glenn Beck is a schoolteacher on television and points to specific episodes of the Glenn Becks show that inspired him to do it.
MATTHEWS: Oh, God.
 
Maybe someone can ask Chris Matthews or his staff to spend a little time taking a look at Media Matters site before he has another one of their contributors on as a guest again.