Posted on 01/13/2011 4:41:10 PM PST by Sub-Driver
White House Says It Wasn't Responsible for Picking Rowdy Basketball Arena for Arizona Memorial Service Thursday, January 13, 2011 By Fred Lucas
Washington (CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the White Houes was not responsible for choosing a basketball arena, as opposed to a church or a smaller auditorium that might be more conducive to a solemn event, for Wednesday's night's memorial service in Tucson, Ariz.
The McKale Memorial Center, an athletics facility at the University of Arizona, was packed with a reported 14,000 people, who repeatedly broke out in cheers and screams of a sort not ordinarily associated with a memorial service.
Last Sunday, the Arizona Wildcats basketball team played Stanford in the same arena, and this Saturday they will play Arizaon state there.
Gibbs said the White House did not play a role in choosing the venue for the memorial. A university spokesperson told CNSNews.com that the venue was picked after President Barack Obama confirmed he would be attending.
At Thursday's White House briefing, CNSNews.com asked, “What was the reason for choosing the arena as opposed to maybe a church or a smaller venue?”
Gibbs said the venue was chosen by the University of Arizona not the White House.
“Well, I would point you to the university on that, and I think it’s important to understand this was--we were invited to and accepted quite happily the invitation of the university,” Gibbs told CNSNews.com.
“I think having that many people there and being able to include people from the community was, again, was and is an important part of that healing process. But in terms of logistics and things like that, I’d point you to the university as they’d probably be better to answer your questions on those sorts of things,” he added.
Jennifer Fitzenberger, director of external communications for the university, confirmed the university began planning the event over the weekend, and invited President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to attend.
“It was held at the university and coordinated with city and county officials,” Fitzenberger told CNSNews.com. “The venue was decided on after the president accepted.”
Earlier in the White House press briefing, Mark Knoller of CBS News asked Gibbs, “What did the president think about the pep rally aspect and tone of the event last night?”
Gibbs responded that it was part of the grieving process.
“Well, look, I’m not a Tucsonian, obviously, but I think that having been there for a day before the president got there, you could understandably feel the weight of what had happened,” Gibbs said.
“I think part of the grieving process is celebrating the lives of those that were lost and celebrating the miracles of those that survived. I think you’ve all probably by now read the transcript from the two members on the plane last night about their personal experience with the congresswoman in her hospital bed. It’s an emotional thing to read,” he added.
“Again, I think--I will say that the speech--I read the speech several times and thought that there wouldn’t be a lot of applause, if any,” Gibbs continued. “I think many of us thought that. But I think there was a celebration, again, of the lives of those that have been impacted, not just those that – not just at that grocery store but throughout the country. And I think that if that is part of the healing process, then that’s a good thing.”
Obama’s speech lasted 33 minutes 44 seconds and was interrupted for applause 51 times. The tone of the applause at times included shouts and whistles similar to a political rally.
The speech was compared to earlier speeches given by presidents during a time of national crisis, such as President Ronald Reagan’s speech after the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986 and President Bill Clinton’s speech after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
Reagan’s speech was delivered from the Oval Office and lasted less than three minutes.
Clinton delivered his speech at the State Fair Grounds Arena. The Associated Press reported that 20,000 were in attendance. The speech went for 9 minutes and 10 seconds. The speech was interrupted for applause eight times, but was more subdued and typically involved clapping after certain lines in the speech.
Check this out: Together We Thrive (Organizing for America Campaign Trial Balloon from 2008?)
Yeah, spur of the moment thing.
Together We Thrive (on the wealth of the productive and the gullibility of the sheep).
Sure sounds like a pre-cooked campaign slogan to me.
If I need to heal, I feel a bit selfish. I don't need to do anything except be smarter, more giving, a better father, and avoid bad people.
I was out and had ‘taped’ something on the tube and when I went to replay it this AM the variety show?? was on and as I was fast forwarding I stopped and lo and behold Holder was being introduced and you would have thought it was a rock concert with all the cheering etc...
Understand they both read from the Bible...kind of against ‘their’ standards in regards church & state isn’t it?
This morning I heard the ‘quote’ about her opening her eyes for the first time - I can’t really stand the SOB so I took it to mean he was saying she opened her eyes in his presence.
How would you like BO to be the first thing you saw when coming out of a coma?
Of course BO wouldn’t be within a couple of miles of any ‘tragedy’ etc me or my cohorts would be involved in.....
All this group of numbskulls are telling us when they make such statements, is that they are incompetent and they never believe that any responsibility came with the job.
I don’t believe this is Wellstone II, but it clear that they did not learn their lessons of the past. Not nearly as desperate and vile. Just as classless though. I was in attendence at the Wellstone Rally (please dont ask why), and I thought I was at a Nazi rally.
Nothing unusual about holding a pep rally in a basketball arena.
Ever wonder what a $600 tomato tastes like?
Why?
(Just kidding)
Crazy world, ain’t it?
I was a student there at the time, and a girl I was trying to date talked me into it. While I never learned anything about the girl, I definately learned a lot that day.
Pep rally tee shirts?
That is the most rational question I've heard yet. What did the tee shirts say?
Obviously, there were many Obama supporters there who didn't have a clue. Who haven't the slightest notion of what a memorial service is.
Someone, evidently didn't give a **** and didn't want a large getogether go to waste. Political scavengers...
... and clearly Obamabots.
Inferior, even, than trailer trash.
Now that’s a shame. You had to suffer through that, and still didn’t get the girl.
The media has been talking about Obama needing a OKC moment, like Clinton, so when this happened they launched. Only, the mood of the country is different then. Also, Clinton is a showman and he can be endearing. Obama isn’t the cute and cuddley. I don’t think the attacks were as vicisious this time around.
Obama walked into that arena thinking he was getting his OKC moment and that the nation would be appreciative and fall at his feet. What he doesn’t understand is many of us could see right through the masquarade. It should have been about the greiving families, not about him.
Gibbs really wanted to say “there were no hoots and hollers. I didn’t hear anything that resembed a rally- you can’t be seriously suggesting that the president would stand for that, right?”.....But the WH will say anything with the hope that their supporters are just too dumb to know what really happened.
All I can say is that was an eye opening experience, that I thought at the time would be tough to duplicate. I actually came there to sincerly pay respect to Senator Wellstone, even though I thought he was a communist. I got no sense that anyone there cared about him.
Let me put some appropriate words in Dear Leader’s mouth. “Let me make this perfectly clear. It is not my fault. It was never my fault, and it will never be be my fault. As I’ve said before, it will never be my fault!”
Pep Rally/Memorial Service Guests Booed AZ Gov. Jan Brewer according to the NY Times.
“Even as it began, some conservative commentators were posting comments criticizing the memorial service for being overly partisan and more like a pep rally, and there were some boos in the hall when Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, spoke. Those reactions would have been hard to imagine, say, in the days after the Oklahoma City bombing.”(1)
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/us/13assess.html
There is a saying that liberals only care about groups of people, and conservatives only care about individuals.(or something like that)
I agree with that, and I think that really sums it up.
I’ve been to Aggie Muster in a “rowdy basketball arena”. It was a very somber event.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.