Obama may give speech about Giffords shooting. What could go wrong?

Mr. Obama is considering delivering a speech about the greater context surrounding the shooting, but advisers said it was premature to do so until Ms. Giffords’s condition stabilized and more became known about the gunman’s motives.

The shooting could also become a theme of the State of the Union address…

Yet openly seeking political advantage in tragedy is a delicate business and can backfire, as some of Mr. Clinton’s aides suggested. “The only way you gain political advantage is by doing absolutely nothing to take advantage — and not have a lot of people back-grounding about how clever your political strategy is,” said Michael D. McCurry, who was Mr. Clinton’s press secretary at the time of the Oklahoma bombing.