Obama’s Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting

NBC | by Robert A. George | Nov. 6, 2009

President Obama didn’t wait long after Tuesday’s devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships.

The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective. But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks.

At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a “shout-out” to “Dr. Joe Medicine Crow — that Congressional Medal of Honor winner.” Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That’s the least that should occur.

Indeed, an argument could be made that Obama should have canceled the Indian event, out of respect for people having been murdered at an Army post a few hours before. That would have prevented any sort of jarring emotional switch at the event.

Did the president’s team not realize what sort of image they were presenting to the country at this moment? The disconnect between what Americans at home knew had been going on — and the initial words coming out of their president’s mouth was jolting, if not disturbing.

It must have been disappointing for many politically aware Democrats, still reeling from the election two days before. The New Jersey gubernatorial vote had already demonstrated that the president and his political team couldn’t produce a winning outcome in a state very friendly to Democrats (and where the president won by 15 points one year ago). And now this? Congressional Democrats must wonder if a White House that has burdened them with a too-heavy policy agenda over the last year has a strong enough political operation to help push that agenda through.

If the president’s communications apparatus can’t inform — and protect — their boss during tense moments when the country needs to see a focused commander-in-chief and a compassionate head of state, it has disastrous consequences for that president’s party and supporters.

All the president’s men (and women) fell down on the job Thursday. And Democrats across the country have real reason to panic.

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2 thoughts on “Obama’s Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting”

  1. President Obama needs to have more empathy for America’s military personnel — especially for those who lose their lives while serving in the military. The president waited too long — and he should have been more sympathetic — in addressing the “nightmare” at Fort Hood, where the worst case of killings ever to occur on an American military base recently took place.

  2. Hi George you are right. Unfortunately, I think that Obama cannot fake empathy despite his skills as a politician and lawyers. He’s supposed to be an “expert” at public speaking and “empathizing” with his audience, yet he cannot muster up enough passion to look even normal. This should be a huge warning sign of the spiritual dysfunction and his twisted sense of priorities and concerns.

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