President Obama didn’t say squat about gun control during last night’s State of the Union address. So much so that CBS News headlined its omission (no bias there). The President did, however, begin the speech with a borderline exploitative reprise of his kumbaya moment at the recent memorial for the victims of Jared Lee Loughner’s spree killing. As TTAG has pointed out many times, the Commander-in-Chief has shown remarkable restraint on gun control, attributable to either political savvy, personal conviction or both. The counter-argument: his administration has re-nominated Andrew Traver. The ATF’s Chicago bureau chief is an anti-gunner whose confirmation hearing promises open season on both the ATF’s incompetence and gun control. Meanwhile . . .
MSNBC’s left-leaning pseudo-journalist Chris Matthews is promising that the Prez will give a “special presidential address” on gun control. Later soon (i.e. “It’s not been scheduled yet but there’s going to be one”). Source? “You can take it from me.” I’ve taken quite enough from Chris Matthews already, thank you very much.
Even though I reckon Obama [rightly] considers gun control the third rail in American politics, my fingers were poised over plastic when he justified government intrusion into every aspect of American life by calling it “common sense.” That’s been the buzzword for the gun control movement for the last eight months or so. Like this from empire.wnyc.org:
Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner also thought that the Arizona tragedy provided Obama a moment to lean into what has normally been a difficult issue.
“In a speech that seemed to strive for common ground, he missed a chance for common sense on guns,” Weiner said.
Lest we forget, “common sense” is also part of the name of Frank Lautenberg’s new gun control package. Anyway, while Obama doesn’t have a Clintonia hard-on for gun control, it remains to be seen if he’ll let his peeps chisel away at gun rights through bureaucratic fiat. Is the moribund Mexican border long gun registry dead? Will Andrew “Dead Fish” Traver prevail in his Senate confirmation hearings?
Watch this space.
I think the media is far more interested in gun control than the general population. I took a look at an “ask the President” feature on YouTube a few minutes ago and scrolled through the first 40 or so questions (most highly rated displayed first) and none of them mentioned gun control – energy independence appeared most often, followed by transportation infrastructure.
If Obama wants to entangle himself in a debate on gun control I say “jump right in!”
A Republican speechwriter could have written Obama’s SOTU speech – maybe one did (ala Dick Morris). Regardless of whether Uncle O Chi Minh personally favors gun control, he’d be a fool to make an issue of it at this time. He made his big liberal push over the last two years. All he can do now is pull is pull back and govern to the middle, as Clinton did, and hope for a second term.
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