US Politics: Can Obama Use a "New Discourse" To Take Control of the State of the Union?

If President Obama can continue his recent "bold leadership and prophetic eloquence" in the State of the Union Address, he has the opportunity to override the bickering in the House of Representatives, imprinting an indelible impression in the minds of the 77% of Americans who believe that compromise is a worthy objective. No one should be naïve enough to think that politics will not return to the heated debate that marked the last Congress, but on 25 January Obama could don the mantle of representing the "silent majority" of moderates of both parties –-- and Independents --– in the US.

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The Arizona Shootings: Getting to the Missing Point --- "It's Guns, Stupid" (Matlin)

The repercussions and the debate around this episode will continue for years. But you can be certain that a question  poseed elsewhere --- “Where did the alleged attacker Jared Lee Loughner get the gun?” --- will not be a priority in America. From The New York Times to The Washington Post to CNN and MNSBC, this query was not being posed, let alone answered. No one wants to touch the subject of gun ownership. It has become the third rail of politics.

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Beyond The Arizona Shootings: The Real Danger of Divisive, Vitriolic Politics (Miller)

Cartoon: R.J. Matson (St Louis Post-Dispatch)In this important dialogue about the decency of our politics, an important point may be missed. The heated rhetoric, the hate speech, the shock-jocks, and the vitriolic politicians, have already claimed a prominent victim.

The truth.

The Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote that the first casualty of war is truth, and if politics is war "by other means",  in the last decade it has moved from a chivalric duel to a scorched-earth campaign.

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After the Arizona Shootings: Can the Approach of "No Labels" Succeed? (Haddigan)

Unfortunately, No Labels does not seem to have stirred the imagination or won the backing of Americans. It is still early days, and recent events may catapult them to prominence among citizens tired with the controversy over "violent rhetoric" and/or the motives of the alleged Arizona gunman, Jared Lee Loughner; however, their prospects for the 2012 elections do not look good. Currently, only 13,000 visitors to their site have signed the declaration to “join your neighbours who are asking their leaders to put the labels aside and do what's best for America", and there is no sign of acceleration.

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The Arizona Shootings: Scott Lucas on the BBC

I did a series of interviews for BBC radio and television about this weekend's shootings of 20 people, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in Arizona. Discussion focused on the context for the violence and what this means for US politics and society.

One of the interviews was with Radio 5 Live. The item begins about the 2:05:00 mark.

US Video: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on "Political Violence" (March 2010)

Yesterday Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was critically wounded, shot in the head as she hosted a "Congress on Your Corner" event outside a supermarket in Tucson. The gunman first targeted Gifford at point-blank range, then fired into the crowd. Six people were killed; 13, including Giffords, were injured.

Last March, after her office was vandalised, Giffords was interviewed by MSNBC News. She said:

We can't stand for this....They [politicians] really need to realise that the rhetoric and firing people up and things, for example, like we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list....The way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. 

When people do that, they got to realize there's consequences for that action....