…for two reasons. First, I’m exhausted with the Arizona shooting thing. Everything about the story is negative and everything about the way it’s been examined is worse. So I hit my limit yesterday.

And second, LSU’s basketball team was winning. You only get so many opportunities to watch those guys win a game these days.

But from what I understand, he generally did a good job and he was generally presidential. And he also apparently slapped down the loons from his base by noting the obvious truth that “right-wing rhetoric” or politics of any kind didn’t have anything to do with Jared Loughner shooting those people.

And that’s good. It’s nice to have a president who acts like he’s the president of the whole country, rather than president of the 20 percent who count themselves as lefties. If he does more of that he might get re-elected, which isn’t helpful, but at least the country would be better served by having someone who tries to unite us.

But I’d caution that speeches are one thing and governing is something else. And while Obama might have delivered some warm fuzzies to folks in Tucson, and rightfully so, he’s still strangling our economy here in Louisiana with his permitorium on offshore drilling – which has resulted in one recently-filed federal lawsuit and will likely result in many more. He’s still strangling the internet through the use of the FCC after their attempts to regulate it have already been declared unconstitutional. He’s still using regulatory fiat to deny businesses the right to operate the workplaces which work best for them and their workers through the National Labor Relations Board.

And so on.

Obama’s governance hasn’t improved, if his speechifying has. Let’s see some substance to go with the style.