Guess Who’s Not Going To The Ground Zero Memorial On September 11th… Again…
For the second year in a row since Obama has been president, he will not be attending the Ground Zero commemoration of 9/11 in New York. Why? For political reasons, of course…
Every year it’s a challenge for the White House: how to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This year is especially awkward, given the controversy around President Barack Obama’s remarks in support of an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned for a neighborhood near ground zero in lower Manhattan.
The White House has not yet announced the president’s plans for next week, though a source familiar with the matter was doubtful Obama would travel to New York.
But the president’s options are otherwise limited: Last year, he marked the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks at the Pentagon, and a return appearance there seems unlikely. This year, first lady Michelle Obama and former first lady Laura Bush will travel together to Shanksville, Pa., to honor the 40 passengers and crew members who died in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.
That leaves the former World Trade Center site in New York, where Obama hasn’t been since the 2008 presidential campaign. But a presidential appearance at ground zero on Sept. 11 — where an activist group plans to protest the Islamic center project that day — will almost certainly reignite the political firestorm.
Read that last part again. When Obama was running for president in 2008 and it was politically convenient to be seen at Ground Zero, he went. Now that he is president and sees Ground Zero as a political liability, he’s keeping a careful distance.
Pathetic.
Read more at Memeorandum.
