Ken Berwitz
It was just hours after the Umpqua Community College massacre.
The dead had not yet been counted.
The names of the dead had not yet been released.
The killer had not yet been named.
His motives had not yet been determined – though there were reports (since confirmed) that he sought out Christians in particular.
It was not known whether he acquired his guns legally or illegally.
But President Obama went on national TV and made a political speech demanding more gun control – during which he accusingly noted that some people would say he was politicizing the massacre (a clever pre-emptive technique designed to dissuade people from making this charge, even though it was exactly what he did).
In a 12 minute speech – in which he could not offer condolences to the dead since they had not been named, and there was no certainty about how many of the injured would survive, he made 28 references to himself.
A speech supposedly about a massacre, supposedly about gun control, made before anyone knew the circumstances behind that massacre, who died or why it happened….and there were 28 references to what really mattered: himself.
I count the seconds until this man is out of office.
