“Let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11.” Using his triumphal announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed, President Obama tried once again to call the nation to a sense of common purpose. The next night, with the jubilant shouts of the crowd outside the White House still echoing through its halls, the president rallied the bipartisan congressional leadership: “We were reminded again that there is a pride in what this nation stands for and what we can achieve that runs far deeper than party, far deeper than politics.”

That shared pride has been missing from our politics for years – the sense of family born out of horror almost forgotten. In a mastery of understatement, the president observed: “That unity that we felt on 9/11 has frayed a little bit over the years,” adding, “I have no illusions about the difficulties and the debates that we’ll have to be engaged in, in the weeks and months to come.” But still he urged his congressional guests to seize this moment to work together as Washington tackles the deficit and debt, education and immigration.