Obama in Arizona Means Moment to Alter an Image of ‘Detachment’
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When he goes to Arizona today, President Barack Obama will confront a moment of national pain that presents him with a chance to establish a new bond with the American people.
The task of giving expression to shared grief and connecting it with a broader purpose has provided some of the most durable imagery of recent presidencies: Ronald Reagan addressing the nation on the day of the Challenger space shuttle explosion, Bill Clinton with the families of bombing victims in Oklahoma City, and George W. Bush amid the smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center.