Obama - Fort Hood Memorial Service

The Leftist media seem very excited about Obama getting a chance to be the "national consoler."

I'm sure they will declare that no president has ever soothed troubled souls like Obama.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- Stepping for the first time into the role of national consoler, President Barack Obama plans to honor the 13 people slain in a shooting rampage here by remembering what they left behind, offering personal stories about the lives they touched and the service they provided to their country.

Obama still was working on his speech as he flew to Texas on Tuesday for a memorial service five days after the shooting that left 13 dead and 29 wounded on the bustling Army post. Military families and civilians alike gathered for the ceremony, some wearing red, white and blue ribbons in honor of those slain.

The president hoped to convey the idea that for those killed, "their memory lasts in the service and the dedication of the Armed Forces and by the people that they touched, both in the military and outside," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama were meeting first with families of those killed, then with those wounded but released from the hospital and their families, before taking part in a memorial service. Later, the president and first lady planned to go to a military hospital to meet with those still recovering from injuries incurred during the attack.

The site of the ceremony is a field on the massive post, cordoned off with walls of steel shipping containers.

This is Obama's time to take on the healer role that can help shape a presidency at a time of national tragedy.

In an interview Monday with ABC News, Obama said he was going to Fort Hood to "personally express the incredible heartbreak that we all feel for—for the loss of these young men and women."

What?

No shout-outs today?

Will Obama get right to his consoling or will he talk about health care first?

Is this actually going to be Obama's first apolitical public remarks since he took office?

I don't want to hear psychobabble from Obama.

I don't want to hear about how Nidal Hasan was stressed and cracked, blah, blah, blah.

He didn't suffer a sudden breakdown. It's telling that Hasan's classmates, "faculty members, including many high-ranking military officers, witnessed firsthand his anti-Americanism." Hasan's attack against the U.S. military was a long time coming and nothing was done to stop it.

What Obama should do is APOLOGIZE to the men and women of Fort Hood. He should APOLOGIZE to their families.

Obama and his comrades were wrong to act as if Islamic extremism was somehow rooted in the presidency of George W. Bush.

Obama should label Hasan's rampage what it is -- a terrorist attack.

He should vow to do everything possible to keep al Qaeda wannabes and Islamic extremists out of the U.S. military. He should pledge to secure our bases and eliminate threats from within. He should acknowledge that as commander in chief he's been asleep at the switch, that he was delusional to believe that our enemies would retreat if he apologized to them.

An APOLOGY from Obama is in order, not from America to the world but from him to America.

The only legitimate stop on Obama's global APOLOGY tour is at home, at Fort Hood.