PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Gallery
    • 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  |  October 5, 2026

Marshall for The Hill: On Immigration, Democrats Should Look to the Nordic Model

  • Will Marshall
Domain Awareness  |  October 1, 2026

U.S. Military Completes Withdrawal from Iraq

  • Danielle Steitz Mary Guenther
Podcast  |  October 1, 2026

Ainsley on The Spectator Podcast Coffee House Shots: Can Andy Keep Up With His Promises?

  • Claire Ainsley
Op-Ed  |  September 30, 2026

Kahlenberg for The Atlantic: How the Culture War Put Public Schools at Risk

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg
In the News  |  September 29, 2026

Marshall in Mainichi: Democratic Party’s Left-Wing Candidates May Struggle to Expand Support in Battleground States Ahead of Midterm Elections

  • Will Marshall
Domain Awareness  |  September 24, 2026

Introducing Domain Awareness

  • Danielle Steitz 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