Should Obama show support by flying to Ft Hood

The President showed respect by attending the return of our fallen hero soldier. He showed political disrespect to his own party by not actively viewing the November elections. The question is, why didn't he fly down to Ft Hood to show support to the troops there? Ft Hood is one of the largest military bases that we have. It's only about a round of golf, or basketball game away.
Yet, he chose to remain in the comfort of The White House.
Some five star general or Commander in Chief he is.

What purpose would it have served by him going there?

He didn't show respect by attending the return of fallen soldiers. He attended for a photo op. That is why he asked family members if he could be photographed saluting a casket, thankfully only one family agreed.

I wonder who taught him to properly salute? Not many Presidents have pulled off a nice crisp salute like he did.

reply to post by Bored To Tears

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Didn't you see the new teleprompters? They now have a 4"x6" HDTV embedded video screen. He just emulated what he saw on the screen.

You know, Reagan was an Actor turned President. This guy is a President turned Actor.

Yes he should go because this is big, and he is partly responsible for not pulling troops like he promised during the campaign.

Hell, if he was able to fly to Copenhagen for nothing, he should fly to Fort Hood for something that really matters.

But I'm afraid it will be business as usual for our government, they won't even take time off to mourn because they are too busy with Obama care.

What has happened to my country?

Well, you've got a whole bunch of dead, wounded, and traumatized soldiers, plus their grieving families. You've got various investigations going on, trying to unravel what really happened, who did what, how the guy got hold of the weapons, and so forth, and so on. The whole place is up for grabs, security is probably set at "paranoid", etc.

Now you want the President to fly down there, causing more chaos and confusion? The President can't go pee without being surrounded by Secret Service. Everywhere he goes, there is a whole flock of security people to protect him and make sure no one tries anything. For him to go to Fort Hood would require this entourage to go with him, plus it would divert a significant number of military security personnel from their current job of protecting Ft. Hood and finding the facts about this tragedy, to babysitting the President, who really can't do jack to help.

This is one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations. If Obama stays away, he's a mean barstid who doesn't care about the troops. If he goes, he's a grubby politician trying to get a photo-op for political reasons.

I think he's doing the right thing by staying the hell out of everyone's way.

I wouldn't expect him to fly in the next day...but a trip should be scheduled within the month. I mean, somebody just shot a bunch of people. We can't have the President walk into the place without sealing security holes.

Endisnear and Alex, stars to you two!! Obummer will probably send some flunky "czar of mourning" with a photo of his noble Piece(of crap) prize hanging from their collar, to render their symphony and connotations.

The situation sucks it really does and I'm not trying to down play it in anyway at all but he has bigger things on his plate to attend to.

If i had a family member that died there, the last thing I would care about is him showing up. I would however care if him and his staff started to look at this tragedian and what can be learned from him. Maybe have a real "teachable moment" this time.

Sure it sucks really bad but the president cant just fly everywhere when 10 people die. It would be like expecting the CEO of a large company to call every person after they got hurt on the job when they have thousands of employee's. There is better equipped people to handle that situation right now then Obama.

Sure, Obama could fly there and give his condolences and make a proud sounding speech. Why not? He flies everywhere else for whatever reason, or so it seems to me. But, yeah, security issues right now. At least though, he could fly over Ft. Hood in Air Force One and survey the situation like GWB did after Katrina.

I heard on the news today that Obama went to Walter Reed Hospital to visit some wounded troops today. Hey, he's catching on, eh? Finally, he made a visit there.

reply to post by Violater1

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Op, are you saying that the President showed respect by going to Dover Air Force base to witness the return of fallen soldiers from Afghanistan? That was not showing respect for the soldier. Showing respect for the slain soldier would be do that while leaving the camera's behind. It became especially egregious as their allies in the media tried to create the impression that Bush did not do anything like this. President Bush met with families of fallen soldiers all the time at the base, upon return of the body of their loved one. Only thing is, he didn't feel the need to exploit the soldiers death by using their sacrifice as tool to garner support and or cultivate a certain image and agenda.



[edit on 6-11-2009 by RDR17]

It's about the lowest thing I can imagine to USE this terrible tragedy as an excuse to bash the president... as if there aren't enough threads bashing him, you just had to squeeze in one more... Disgusting!

As you can see, many have accused him of going to Dover for a "photo op". So, the same would accuse him of going to Ft. Hood for the same reason. If he stays away, he's accused of not caring or making a basketball game more important.

He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't with you guys. It's so obvious.

Well that's one of the reasons he might not go -- because certain members of the public will surely interpret anything he does, from curing cancer to using a biodegradable water bottle, as a Stalinist plot. If he did insist (in Dover) that he not be photographed, you'd probably say that's because he was afraid to reveal his horns and hooves. Duh.

Who cares if he goes or not.

Why should we answer his pr questions?

Absolutely not. I was less than impressed with his performance yesterday and the jovial little shout-out less than a minute before he spoke on this issue, but I can't fault him one bit for not traveling down there. It serves no purpose and all it does is bring the whole presidential entourage of security and media down there to create further chaos. He did the right thing by staying away.

He should definitely not go. Does anyone stop to notice that every time there is a tragedy like this, the news carries it on for hours and days with interviews, dramatic footage, and talking heads pondering what could have been going on in the perp's head?

I feel terrible for the victims in their families, but for all those future nutters looking to shoot up a public place near you, they don't need to see that they will get tons of attention and that the president is going to fly down to see for himself.

We have been mistakenly been giving those people far too much media attention for far too long. There's a kid in a basement somewhere working on a bomb, and he is just waiting to see how much exposure he'll get when he "gets his message out."

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As far as this being in bad taste, it does seem so, but to each their own. I'll not use murdered people for my personal political agenda...

*Edit - clarity*

[edit on 11/6/09 by niteboy82]

To tell you the truth, it would mean a lot more to the soldiers if Former President George Bush went to comfort them rather than Obama.

Bush had his faults, but he always held the military in high regard. His respect and admiration for the troops was obvious to all the soldiers who served under him while he was Commander & Chief. Obama....not so much!

If he (GWB) respected his soldiers as much as my neighbors respect their dogs, he wouldn't have sent them to die on unproven and fabricated intel, end of story. They were disposable to him and his evil Cabal of Cheney, Perle etc.

Yea this is pretty low, and quite disgusting to criticize Obama over this.



Low blow people, low blow.

He should not go anywhere and neither should that idiot Biden. Stay away from Texas in general please. We will handle this situation on our own thank you.

Obama has done nothing up to this point for the military so do not make is worse by showing up now and pretending to care. Enough photos of him doing nothing already.

Obama to Visit Walter Reed After Fort Hood Shooting

There you go, is this the hospital where some of the wounded from Fort Hood have been taken?

If so, will it stop the bashing?

Way i see it the guy can't win either way, if he goes to Fort Hood he'll be bashed for using it as a photo op, if he stays at home he'll be bashed for not caring.

CX.