Obama Under Fire For Fort Hood Response

The last thing President Barack Obama needed this week was a shooting on a military base at Ford Hood, Texas. However, as President Obama is learning the hard way - the President of the United States can do many things, but the most powerful person in the world cannot control the actions of crazy people who show up with guns - hell bent on killing others. It's not the on base shootings at Fort Hood, Texas that is drawing fire from President Obama critics - but the way in which he first talked to the American people as the news was still breaking about the Fort Hood massacre.

When all hell was still breaking loose at Fort Hood army base, President Obama was already scheduled to be talking to a group of people about a positive issue. Instead, of talking to the news media first about what a terrible tragedy the Fort Hood base army shootings really were - President Obama tried to he happy in one sentence when he was praising an Indian group and then within seconds he changed his mood to offer condolences to the family's of victims in Killeen, Texas. My thinking is that President Obama was trying to kill two birds with one stone this week, but in the end he ended up failing miserably as people who already don't like him - used the murders at Fort Hood, Texas to show that he lacks compassion as commander and chief.

On a personal level, I believe these attacks against President Obama's compassion are totally politically motivated. I do not believe that President Obama has a cold heart, but instead he is a very smart individual that tries to compartmentalize issues and problems in the same way as President Clinton did before him. Smart men have been known for years to use compartmentalization as a way to clear through all the smoke that gets generated around an important and complex issue to make cool and well thought out decisions in the face of a crisis. It was a mistake for President Obama to try to offer praise to one group of Americans in the same speech when he was trying to give comfort to the families of the injured and dead soldiers that were killed on the Fort Hood army base in Texas this week.

Right now, President Obama seems to be messing up a lot more than I thought was possible when he was elected the 44th President of the United States. It is always the case that when politicians run for public officer they are better versed in the words that are needed to win the office. Then when the time comes for them to quit campaigning and start leading - issues of coldness and lack of compassion are often times glued to that politician unfairly. I remember on many occasions when President Bush 41 and 43 both appeared on television speaking in a cold way about some mass tragedy or crisis. Right now, President Obama is still learning the rules of the road when it comes to being an effective President of the United States and that is why I believe the American people will forgive him for not showing more emotion when a gunman killed over one dozen people at Fort Hood this week.