focusing on what happened before, but was focusing on the debate that sprung up and the tone of the debate that sprung up since the shooting. >> no, i agree with that, and in that context he called on people to avoid the blame game. that's been one of the most disturbing aspects of what's happened is that people have been taking the idea of civility, the idea of tolerance, and using it as a weapon in their ideological battles. and, you know, that is both ironic and disturbing. and the president criticized that in this speech. i think that he deserves credit for that. so, you know, i'm just not sure that in a memorial service like this, addressing the news cycle, addressing the issue of the day, which this is definitely the issue of the day, was the right approach. i think there might have been other settings to do that. but what he said, i think, was constructive. >> doug brinkley, do you agree that this was kind of the obama of old during the campaign, sort of some of the tenor, some of the cadences that he used? >> part of it. some of it seemed like a little