Americas

Americas

Obama, Romney Resume Campaigns Quietly After Colorado Shootings

24 July 2012 02:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. President Obama and Mitt Romney are resuming their campaigns today after both candidates suspended regular campaigning over the weekend in the wake of the Aurora theater shootings. With the most recent polls indicating that Obama is only ahead by an average of 1 percent, it is critical that both candidates react to the tragedy appropriately, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

As a mother, my heart aches for the victims of the deadly shooting, and their families. As a voter, I was glad to see that both President Obama and Mitt Romney had the compassion to suspend their campaign ads in Colorado. Given the nature of the attack ads on both sides, it was a prudent move, and one that kept the focus on the victims instead of politics. The families of the victims should be spared the ads.

Both campaigns do need to resume operations, if only to prove that our nation can pull together in a time of crisis and still get things done. Both sides are exercising caution with the size and nature of future campaign stops, which seems both respectful and appropriate. Obama has cancelled a rally that his campaign felt would not be fitting given the circumstances. Romney is reportedly staying away from his usual stump speech. Criticizing the president at a time when he should be uniting the country seems like the worst thing that Romney could do right now, and it seems that he might agree.

The politicking has begun, however, with regards to gun control, which could become a major election issue. Though this is something that neither the president or Romney could prevent, I don’t believe that now is the time to talk about whether we should strengthen gun laws in this country. Not even 48 hours after the attack, politicians appeared on Sunday morning talk shows, reigniting the gun-control debate. Senators Diane Feinstein and Ron Johnson appeared on Fox News Sunday to debate gun ownership in this country. It was entirely too soon to engage in any sort of discussion over gun rights and gun control. Questioning whether or not stricter gun laws might have prevented the tragedy is injurious to the families of those killed in Aurora.

While Obama and Romney have exhibited appropriate, respectful behavior so far; politicians in Congress have not been as measured in their responses. The shootings in Colorado were not politically motivated. The response should have little, if anything, to do with politics.