James Fallows:
I think Barack Obama’s eulogy [Friday] at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston was his most fully successful performance as an orator. It was also one that could have come only at this point in his public career—and not, for instance, when he was an intriguing figure first coming to national notice, as he was during his celebrated debut speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston 11 years ago; or when he was a candidate fighting for political survival, as he was when he gave his “Race in America” speech in Philadelphia early in 2008.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—The Staggering Cost of Playing it "Safe":
So why do we go through the shoe ritual? First the fear factor around shoes was bolstered by other events. Only a few months after Reid's failed attempt, an airliner went down in Queens. Immediately, the rumor circulated that the plane had been the victim of another shoe bomber -- a theory that seemed to be confirmed by "cooperating" terror suspect, Mohammed Jabarah who was feeding information to the CIA from inside an al-Qaeda cell. Jabrah claimed that the plane had been destroyed by an unnamed "12th hijacker" using a shoe bomb, as part of a "second wave" of airliner attacks. Thing is, Jabarah was lying. The flight that came down in Queens failed because of problems with the plane's rudder, and Jabarah was later rearrested after it turned out he was giving plenty of real information to al-Qaeda while feeding fairy tales to the US. This came after a period in which Jabarah was the "subject of some interrogation which was improper" while a prisoner in Oman (i.e. torture doesn't work, and it's a really bad way to start your relationship with your new double agent).
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