Obama at Ground Zero (Video)

UPDATE: Raw Video: Obama Lays Wreath at Ground Zero



Obama is ready for his close-up.

And he spikes the football!

This moment, Obama visiting Ground Zero as president, should have happened years ago. Now, it comes off as campaigning. That context makes me cringe.

Here's video of Obama speaking to New York City firefighters.



It's a campaign speech.
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UPDATE: In New York today for his Ground Zero photo op, Obama told those personally touched by the horror of 9/11 that "we will never forget."

Solemnly honoring victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, President Barack Obama hugged survivors, thanked the heroes of one of the nation's darkest days and declared Thursday that the killing of Osama bin Laden after all these years was an American message to the world: "When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say."

On a brilliant blue-sky day, one of reflection more than celebration, Obama offered New Yorkers a moment of their own. Standing at the gritty construction site of ground zero, where the towers fell and a memorial now rises, the president laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers for the nearly 3,000 who died as he marked a turning point for the nation and this city of steely resilience.

For Obama, the day was about the importance of being in New York in the aftermath of the successful raid to find and kill bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader. Obama addressed families who have watched and wondered for nearly a decade whether the government would track down its most infamous enemy.

On this special ground, Obama never mentioned bin Laden's name.

"We will never forget"?

Obama "forgot" to go to Ground Zero since he became president.

I guess he was too busy playing golf, holding fundraisers, that sort of stuff.
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Obama has been president since January 20, 2009.

As president, he has been to New York many times.

Obama went to New York at the end of May 2009, for his date night with Michelle.

He's gone to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly in 2009 and 2010.

And of course, Obama has held numerous political fundraisers in New York.

But for all the times he's been in New York City, he's never been to Ground Zero as president, never going there on September 11th to commemorate the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Today, Obama will make his first trip to Ground Zero as president.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Obama, in his first visit as president to ground zero, plans to lay a wreath at a memorial to the nearly 3,000 victims of the 9/11 attacks. He will also meet privately with family members of the victims, firefighters and other rescue workers who died in the September 2001 attacks.

“He wants to meet with them and share with them this important and significant moment, a bittersweet moment,” the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said on Wednesday.

It is a quiet coda to a week that began with a stunning announcement by Mr. Obama, just before midnight on Sunday, that a team of Navy Seals had stormed Bin Laden’s hiding place – a heavily-fortified compound in an affluent town not far from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Mr. Obama invited former president George W. Bush to join him at ground zero, but Mr. Bush declined. A spokesman for the former president said he appreciated the invitation but wanted to stick to his policy of staying out of the public spotlight since he left office.

For Mr. Bush, ground zero was the site of one of the iconic moments of his presidency. Days after the World Trade Center towers collapsed, he traveled to the smoldering wreckage to thank the rescue workers, delivering his speech through a firefighter’s bullhorn.

The White House was quick to say it took no offense at Mr. Bush’s decision not to attend, saying that Mr. Bush was invited in the spirit of unity that Mr. Obama said he hoped would prevail in the wake of Bin Laden’s killing, just as it prevailed after the killings perpetrated by Bin Laden nearly a decade ago.

“We’ve made clear that this is a moment of unity for Americans and a moment to recall the unity that existed in this country in the wake of the attacks on 9/11,” Mr. Carney said.

Mr. Obama visited ground zero while a presidential candidate, but he has not been there since entering the White House. He does not plan a deliver a speech, a decision that White House officials said was calculated to avoid any appearance of exploiting the families of the victims for political gain.

With all due respect, what a load of crap!

When Obama shows up at Ground Zero for the first time as president, he won't deliver a speech "to avoid any appearance of exploiting the families of the victims for political gain."

No speech doesn't eliminate the appearance of exploitation of the 9/11 victims for his 2012 political gain.

There's no reason for Obama to go there today, especially since he hasn't bothered to go at any other time during his presidency.

Of course, it's a political move. It's always political with Obama.

Of course, it's exploitation. Obama should have joined the observance of 9/11 at Ground Zero during his first year in office.

This push that the death of bin Laden should be a moment of unity similar to what the nation experienced after the country was attacked in 2001 is nuts.

Yes, there's unity. There should be. But let's not compare bin Laden's death with the experience of the 9/11 attacks and the nation's reaction.

Bin Laden, one man, is dead. That's a tremendous victory and I'm not diminishing that.

But in September 2001, we were mourning the deaths of thousands of innocents. We had witnessed massive destruction within our borders. Our country was attacked. Acts of war were committed on our soil. The human toll was devastating. The grief was unbearable.

No doubt about it, al Qaeda's attacks united us.

So many political battles were fought after 9/11. President Bush was deemed a war criminal. He was brutally criticized for policies meant to protect Americans. There has been so much bad blood that it's impossible to forget.

The overwhelming majority of Americans believe killing bin Laden was the right thing to do. Mission accomplished.

However, the shared experience of bin Laden's death cannot be equated with our shared experience of the horror of September 11, 2001.

A dead bin Laden doesn't bring back the thousands killed on 9/11. The loss experienced by the loved ones of the victims is permanent. In this life, it's forever. Nothing can change that. Their loss was heartbreaking in 2001 and it's just as heartbreaking today.

Although I think it's an unseemly move by Obama, with the appearance of a sleazy photo op, I'm glad he's finally going to Ground Zero.

Maybe he'll have an awakening and discover it's time for him to behave like the president of the United States.