Sixty-three percent (63%) of U.S. voters say political correctness prevented the military from responding to warning signs from Major Nidal Malik Hasan that could have prevented the Fort Hood shootings from taking place.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 16% disagree and do not believe political correctness kept military authorities from possibly stopping the killing of 13 people and the wounding of many others in the November 5 incident. Twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure.

Voters also have very mixed feelings about how President Obama and the Army responded to the Fort Hood incident.

Older Americans are more suspicious of political correctness than voters under 40. Whites were more likely than African-Americans to think political correctness kept the military from responding to warning signs from Hasan.

Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major political party overwhelmingly believe political correctness held the military back. That view is shared by 49% of Democrats while 23% of those in the president’s party disagree.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of Mainstream Americans think political correctness prevented the military from responding before the attacks took place, but a plurality (49%) of the Political Class disagrees.

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New reports say authorities were aware of suspicious behavior and comments by Hasan, a devout Muslim, but no action was taken against him, in part because of concern that there might be an appearance of anti-Islamic bias. Both President Obama and the Army chief of staff urged Americans not to jump to conclusions about the cause of the shootings just after they took place.

But in a Rasmussen Reports survey less than a week after the shootings, 60% of Americans said the massacre at the Texas army base should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act.

Forty-six percent (46%) of voters say the Army’s response to the incident was good or excellent while 17% rate it as poor.

As for the president, 43% give Obama positive marks for his response but 29% say his reaction to the shootings was poor.

Male voters are more critical of both the Army and the president than female voters are.

A plurality (47%) of Democrats say Obama’s response to the tragedy was excellent. Fifty percent (50%) of GOP voters and 34% of unaffiliateds say the president’s response was poor.

The White House has asked Congress to delay its investigation of the Fort Hood shootings until the Pentagon has completed its probe of the incident, but voters have mixed feelings about that request.

Forty-three percent (43%) agree that Congress should wait. However, 48% say Congress should go ahead with its own investigation.

Only 18% of voters feel the U.S. legal system worries too much about protecting national security. More than twice as many, 39% now believe the legal system worries too much about protecting individual rights. A couple of years ago, the number who believed the system worried too much about national security was roughly the same as the number who thought it was too worried about protecting individual rights.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of voters say they have followed news reports about the Fort Hood shootings at least somewhat closely, with 43% who have followed very closely. Only three percent (3%) say they have followed the news about the killings at all.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Texas voters say Hasan should receive the death penalty if he is convicted of the massacre at Ford Hood. Military prosecutors have charged Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder. If convicted, he is eligible for the death penalty.

Twenty-six percent (26%) of employed adults say they have seriously thought that someone in their workplace was capable of mass violence.

Voter confidence in America’s conduct of the War on Terror has fallen to its lowest level since the first week of January in 2007.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters oppose the Obama administration’s decision to try the confessed chief planner of the 9/11 attacks and other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York City. Opposition is even higher among residents of New York State.

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