News
Obama visits Colorado, comforts massacre victims’ families
U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates (l), next to Mayor of Aurora Steve Hogan (2nd R), after arriving at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado July 22, 2012. At left is Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. PHOTO/Larry Downing/Reuters
Despair all around him, President Barack Obama on Sunday offered hugs, tears and the nation’s sympathy to survivors of the Colorado shooting rampage and to families whose loved ones were shot dead. He looked for hope in the heartbreak, insisting a brighter day will come for the grieving and declaring that “much of the world is thinking about them.”
In dramatic detail, Obama offered a glimpse inside the horror that took place in the Denver-area movie theater early Friday, relaying a story he said spoke to the courage of young Americans. With two fingers pressed to his own neck, Obama recalled how one woman saved the life of a friend who had been shot by keeping pressure on a vein that had “started spurting blood” and by later helping carry her to safety.
In private, Obama visited one by one with anguished families gathered at a hospital and wounded patients recovering in intensive care. He emerged before the TV cameras and kept his focus on the lives and dreams of the fallen and the survivors, not the sole shooting suspect or his “evil act.”
“I come to them not so much as president as I do as a father and as a husband,” said Obama, addressing reporters from a hospital hallway after his visits. “The reason stories like this have such an impact on us is because we can all understand what it would be to have somebody we love taken from us in this fashion.”
For a president nearing the end of his term and seeking a second one, it was another grim occasion for him to serve as national consoler in chief, a role that has become a crucial facet of the job. National tragedies compel presidents to show leadership and a comforting touch — or risk a plummeting public standing if they cannot match the moment.
The massacre in the Aurora movie theater left 12 dead and 58 wounded. It also temporarily silenced a bitter campaign fight for the White House between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.
Both men were searching for the right time and manner to re-enter the political debate.
