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Dear Mr. President,

It didn’t seem possible, but you shocked me. After lowering my expectations for you, from very high five years ago to bottom-of-the-barrel now, I figured you could never again disappoint me.

But you did it. And if your aim was to further diminish respect for the office you hold, mission accomplished.

The content of Monday’s hyperpartisan speech was par for your hyperpartisan presidency, but the timing marked a new low. Let me be clear: Have you neither decency nor shame?

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You knew when you took the stage to denounce Republicans that a gunman had opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard, but you didn’t know the full extent of the carnage because nobody did. That’s why you should have stayed silent.

Yet, in remarks hastily put at the top of your speech, you noted that the incident was “unfolding” and said, “We still don’t know all the facts, but we do know that several people have been shot, and some have been killed.”

Later, we learned that 12 innocents already lay dead, not just “several.” How could you be so cavalier, especially with incidents like Fort Hood, Benghazi and the Boston Marathon bombing previously happening on your watch? For all you knew, this one, too, was the work of an Islamic terrorist.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.