DEPLORABLE

President Barack Obama calls the shooting of a Michigan anti-abortion activist “deplorable.”  That is not a word that everyone understands.  If anything it is too mild a word to use when discussing a murder.  That is the word Mr. Obama is quoted as using in an AP report.

Words like Appalling, Unacceptable, and Shocking are more appropriate to an act of violence.  The problem is the president’s use of words like “deplorable.”  Afraid to upset anyone and everyone he chooses his words so carefully that he does not impart what he really means.  How could he not have used the words  Unpardonable or Unforgivable to describe his feelings?  He should have said, “The killing of anyone is appalling and shocking.”

The answer is obvious.  Our president is afraid he will alienate part of the electorate.  That is the reason he carefully chooses his words in his speeches about health care, the Afghanistan War, or any other topic.  Mr. Obama is first and foremost a politician.  He obviously understands the value of diplomacy.  In this instance he does not want to alienate anyone in the abortion debate so he used this mediocre word that does not connote the seriousness of the actions of an accused killer.

In his campaign for president Barack Obama used the words “change you can believe in” and “the time for change is now.”  That was great use of rhetoric speech.  He just never defined his vision of change.  A majority of Americans bought his pitch.  The results are awful and that is the same as deplorable.