On Friday, President Obama gave an important speech on the Zimmerman trial. The following day, the ever-interesting Wall St. Journal covered that speech in a front page article. The following are a couple of quotes from that article, along with a translation into everydayese:

They reported that Obama was “seeking to guide the country’s thinking on race without inflaming racial tensions or undermining the judicial system.”

Translation: Obama didn’t want to discredit either the hard right or the criminal injustice system while at the same time seeking to maintain his base.

Immediately after the verdict, as the WSJ reports, Obama simply commented “the jury has spoken (and we are a nation of laws)” They continue, “As the week wore on, the drumbeat from civil-rights groups asking Mr. Obama to speak out and take action continued. In recent days, the president had conversations with a number of people about this issue before speaking out.”

Translation: The Democratic president has his feelers out. The better connected ministers in the black community, civil rights groups and community groups as well as the non-profiteers — their views and, more important, what they were hearing from their constituents all found a way up the stream to advisors and confidantes of the president. At the same time, Obama also consulted with some of the top Wall St. executives, possibly people in law enforcement and the NSA, etc. Through this, the ever-clever Obama struck the balance that came out in his speech.

Maybe some day some insider will reveal exactly what was said and with exactly whom. Until then we can only guess.