Obama picks a church

Betcha a hundred bucks right now that President Obama attends services at St. John's Episcopal Church on Sunday.

What would you do if you were him? What would you do, immediately after a Muslim member of the U.S. Armed Forces cleaned out his apartment, said good-bye to a friend, gave away his Quran and murdered fellow American soldiers at Fort Hood, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" as he opened fire?

Would you begin your closing remarks at a White House conference of tribal nations and then casually segue into a statement of condolence? This is an excerpt from the transcript of the president's remarks, which the White House press office sent out by e-mail:

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________
For Immediate Release November 5, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT THE CLOSING OF THE TRIBAL NATIONS CONFERENCE

Department of Interior
Washington, D.C.

5:02 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Please, everybody have a seat. Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you. (Applause.)

My understanding is, is that you had an extremely productive conference. I want to thank all of you for coming and for your efforts, and I want to give you my solemn guarantee that this is not the end of a process but a beginning of a process, and that we are going to follow up. (Applause.) We are going to follow up. Every single member of my team understands that this is a top priority for us. I want you to know that, as I said this morning, this is not something that we just give lip service to. And we are going to keep on working with you to make sure that the first Americans get the best possible chances in life in a way that's consistent with your extraordinary traditions and culture and values.

Now, I have to say, though, that beyond that, I plan to make some broader remarks about the challenges that lay ahead for Native Americans, as well as collaboration with our administration, but as some of you might have heard, there has been a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas. We don't yet know all the details at this moment; we will share them as we get them. What we do know is that a number of American soldiers have been killed, and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence.

These remarks were carried live on cable news networks and did not receive good reviews. "Frightening insensitivity," the NBC station in Chicago said on its website.

If you were President Obama, would you go into the Rose Garden and "caution against jumping to conclusions" about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan?

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the post commander at Fort Hood, told NBC's Today show on Friday that Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar!" before opening fire. If you've missed the news for the past eight or nine years, that phrase is Arabic for "God is great!" and it's the traditional greeting of suicide bombers.

"Hasan's motives remain unclear," reporters were told.

What would they have been told if Hasan had been arrested before he did this? Would the word "terrorism" have appeared in the press release? In the headline?

This is the kind of incident that moves public opinion, and not in a pleasant direction.

It is no time to underplay the seriousness of the threat. It is no time for a president to separate himself from the emotional reaction of a country that has just suffered what feels like a treasonous act of war, an attack on a U.S. military base by a person hostile to the United States.

It is no time for fuzzy statements about multi-cultural understanding.

That will only lead to a harsh and uncontrollable backlash against Muslim Americans who exercise their First Amendment rights. The administration will have to convince the public that it understands the risk posed by radicalized individuals inside the United States, and that it is taking every legally permissible action to protect the American people from them.

This is the nation that locked Japanese-Americans in internment camps, an action that was approved by liberal icon Earl Warren.

Fear does things to people.

What it will do to the approval rating of a president who spent part of his childhood as a Muslim remains to be seen.

St. John's Episcopal on Sunday. Bet on it.


Copyright 2009

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