PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

Obama Took His Time In Calling Boston Marathon Attack ‘Terrorism’

  • April 17, 2013
  • The Progressive Policy Institute

McClatchy’s Anita Kumar quotes PPI President Will Marshall on the President Obama’s response to the Boston marathon attack:

In his first term, the president was criticized for his responses to several potential incidents of terrorism.

Most notably, he was vacationing in Hawaii in 2009 and waited three days to speak publicly about the attempted bombing of a trans-Atlantic Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit.

“There’s a suspicion among Republicans that he is only willing to be tough against al Qaida and nobody else,” said Will Marshall, a former Democratic speechwriter who heads the Progressive Policy Institute research center.

Obama, Marshall said, struck the right tone in trying to calm the nation after three people were killed and more than 170 were wounded Monday in two blasts near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

“When there is a crisis we look to the president to be calm, not to be excitable, not boiling over,” he said.

Read the entire article here.

 

Related Work

Op-Ed  |  March 17, 2026

Manno for EducationNext: The Social Wealth Gap

  • Bruno Manno
In the News  |  March 14, 2026

Jacoby in The Big Picture: An Update on Ukraine and Western Europe

  • Tamar Jacoby
Op-Ed  |  March 13, 2026

Marshall for The Hill: Both Trump and Progressives Are Foggy on Iran

  • Will Marshall
In the News  |  March 4, 2026

Ainsley in Politico EU: Keep calm and carry on: Britain’s finance minister tries to dodge the Biden trap

  • Claire Ainsley
In the News  |  February 25, 2026

Jacoby in Background Briefing: As Russia’s War on Ukraine Enters Its Fifth Year, A Report From Kyiv On How the Ukrainians Are Holding Up

  • Tamar Jacoby
In the News  |  February 24, 2026

Jacoby in Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive: Tamar Jacoby from Ukraine

  • Tamar Jacoby
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2026 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings