Bloodthirsty Liberal

It is altogether fitting and proper that a president pay his respects to soldiers who died under his ultimate command.

But did he need to bring hair and makeup with him?

President Barack Obama made a midnight dash to this air base Wednesday to honor the return of fallen soldiers, absorbing the ultimate cost of war as the United States endures its deadliest month of the Afghanistan campaign.

On a clear fall night, Obama flew by Marine One helicopter to Dover Air Force Base to greet the flag-draped cases of 18 Americans killed in action this week.

After landing, the president, wearing a dark topcoat, got into a motorcade to a base chapel, where he met privately with families of the fallen Americans. He had arrived on the base at 12:34 a.m. Thursday and was expected to be back at the White House before dawn.

What, and a mechanic just happened to snap a picture on his cell phone?

President Bush took grief for posing among the troops in Iraq with a roasted turkey on Thanksgiving. Many even claimed it was plastic. Well, I won’t stoop to their level. I believe the coffins and their contents are all too real.

But it was a stunt. I would have felt otherwise had the press not been informed, had the photographer not had the perfect angle and lighting. But this is so posed, it might as well have been Photoshopped. Only this time, the plastic turkey is wearing a blue tie.

This is how a president should appear at such a solemn occasion.

Lincoln, center without hat, at Gettysburg.

PS: Don’t tell me this wasn’t staged. Don’t even try:

Originally, the New York Times reported on President Barack Obama’s visit to Dover AFB and the arrival of fallen serviceman by explaining that the White House wanted Obama to be seen as concerned and aware of the sacrifices made in America’s war policies:

A small contingent of reporters and photographers accompanied Mr. Obama to Dover, where he arrived at 12:34 a.m. aboard Marine One. He returned to the South Lawn of the White House at 4:45 a.m.
< …>
The images and the sentiment of the president’s five-hour trip to Delaware were intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste.

Following that link now, the second paragraph quoted is nowhere to be seen. The Jeff Zeleny report contains no editorial announcement of changes after its publication, and no indication of any retraction. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette and Nice Deb both noticed the change, however, and Greyhawk also noticed that the NYT didn’t quite redact that paragraph from everywhere on its servers. The story now reads like this:

The trip was a symbolic one for Mr. Obama, given the gravity of his coming announcement of a new strategy for Afghanistan.

The image of the commander in chief standing on a darkened tarmac, offering a salute to one of the soldiers, highlighted the poignancy of a decision he is facing.

…

So who changed the story, and why? The original Zeleny report with that paragraph gave credence to the accusation that Obama made the Dover trip for a photo op, picked up by bloggers to criticize the White House. Its mysterious disappearance post-publication indicates that someone was unhappy with that kind of criticism and removed the paragraph to curtail it — and didn’t do a very good job of it, either.

Just the other day, I declined to use Afghanistan against Obama dishonestly the way Iraq was used against Bush, saying “I won’t use coffins of American servicemen as some kind of prop to stage my little plays.”

Little did I know that they were taking notes, because that’s exactly what they did.