With Obama’s Tucson speech, his presidency turns a corner

“He was more emotional than I’ve seen him,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a scholar of presidential communications from Towson University in Maryland. “He was very real, very genuine.”

Watching the speech on TV at a Washington restaurant — the major networks interrupted entertainment programming to show Obama’s remarks — Kumar said patrons had tears in their eyes.

“The nation stopped,” she said. “People stopped and listened and felt the tragedy.”