OBAMA TO FORT HOOD - AT 8:02 A.M. ET:  The president goes to a memorial service at Fort Hood today.  We assume he'll make a few remarks. 

Let us hope that Obama can control his instinct for pontificating.  Let us hope that he remembers who the real victims of the massacre are.  They are the dead and wounded and their families.  They are not those whose feelings might be hurt by some tough questions.

Obama, whose bizarre behavior after the shootings is now a matter of record, should be seeking redemption.  Let's see if he knows how.

Bill Kristol, in the Weekly Standard, tracing the administration's constant missteps concerning Fort Hood, comes to a conclusion that puts additional pressure on the man who presumes to be the commander in chief: 

It was too much to hope, I suppose, that Army Chief of Staff George Casey, appearing on the Sunday talk shows, would signal a re-thinking of the regime of political correctness that seems to have penetrated the Army. It was disappointing that he reinforced that regime with his silly—and offensive—remarks about not letting “diversity” be a further casualty of the events at Ft. Hood, and his warning against a backlash directed at Muslim soldiers. A little more concern for the real casualties of jihadism, and a little less finger-wagging about a hypothetical backlash, would have been nice. As it was, Casey’s remarks merely reinforced the sense that the Army has a political correctness problem...

...Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in Abu Dhabi, said something very similar to what Casey had to say the same day. So there was clearly administration coordination from high-up at the White House with respect to the diversity/backlash message.

That’s fine. Administrations are entitled to coordinate messages coming from different cabinet agencies. But let’s be clear: The diversity/backlash message is President Obama’s, not merely that of General Casey or Secretary Napolitano.

Your turn, Mr. President.  Don't blow it.

November 10,  2009