Let's take a step back for a second.
President Obama has been "signing" condolence letters for more than three years. These particular letters were written nearly a year ago. Yet this comes up now, conveniently close to an election.
This story is being published for political purposes, not for the benefit of the families of deceased soldiers. What's worse is that the first response we have to this politically charged article is not, "How sad for the soldiers' families." Rather, the first response we have is, "Obama: Piece of Shit."
Scoring political points by using dead soldiers = not cool.
But if you really want to angrily charge forward and turn the death of soldiers into a political pissing contest, let's remember history accurately and not act like this is the first time something like this has ever happened. For instance, let's not forget the fact that
Donald Rumsfeld got called out for not signing condolence letters personally. Let's not forget that, since the Clinton administration, condolence letters were not sent to families of military members who committed suicide or died stateside in training accidents, until
Obama changed that policy. Yet
Bush wrote a letter to Tony Dungy after his son committed suicide, but couldn't do so for military members until called out. And no, Bush did not "handwrite" every condolence letter. If you believe that absurd claim, then just ask
Michael Deutsch's father, who received two identical letters from Bush. But the signature was handwritten, so that puts him head and shoulders above Obama in the "I care about our military" department, right?
The White House has used form letters since Vietnam. They're created by staffers and may include a couple of personal facts about the soldier, but they are not written by the President except in special circumstances, and even then I seriously doubt they are penned by the President himself.
If you think the President should spend his time as the leader of an entire nation (not just the Commander in Chief) personally writing and signing thousands of letters to deceased soldiers' families, that's fine, but let's not hold one President to a standard that previous Presidents have not been required to meet. Let's not act like Obama has done something unspeakable that has never been done before.
Most importantly, let's not drag dead soldiers into the spotlight merely for the political gain of either party during an election.