“Capture the imagination” is always, always, always used in a positive light, to mean that the imagination has been engendered by an inspirational act of some sort.
For using the term the way Obama has, he should apologize to every American and every ally, and every family member of an American or an ally who has been murdered by these savages.
The problem with that is that, even if he could be convinced to apologize, it would never be a sincere apology for what he said.
Most everybody on the thread is right — the tape left NOTHING to the imagination and all I felt is horror and sadness for a beautiful young woman and his parents. Such a handsome young man — such sadistic criminals. Obama’s turn of phrase just wouldn't have occurred to me.
Yes, it is.
And Obama's use of this phrase can mean either, in the best case scenario, that he is wholly emotionally disconnected as a human being, and is robotically trying to come up with platitutes to fit various situations, or it can mean, in the worst case scenario, that he identifies with Pearl's killers and that his use of a positive word is, indeed, a true Freudian slip.
There is NO save for him here. If he really did a malaprop, like his Veep Biden, he would have IMMEDIATELY corrected himself over-the-top so as not to offend, as in "Whoa, what am I saying here??" so as not to be thought cruel and heartless. He did not do that. He doesn't give a hoot either way (in my two above scenarios).