'Meet the Press' transcript for Nov. 8, 2009

MR. DAVID GREGORY:  This Sunday:  The House passes healthcare reform late last night.  Plus, Decision 2009, Republicans retake the governors' mansions in New Jersey and key swing state Virginia.

(Videotape)

REP. ERIC CANTOR:  The message was simple:  People have a grave concern about what Washington is doing to them, not for them.

(End videotape)

GREGORY:  GOP dissent, however, cost the party a House seat in New York.

(Videotape)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA):  We won last night.

(End videotape)

GREGORY:  But independent voters are the big story, breaking big for Republicans over concerns about the economy as unemployment climbs over 10 percent, its highest level since 1983.  What did the election say about the mood of the country?  What will it all mean for the president and his party in the midterm race next year?  We'll ask the chairman of the Republican Governors' Association, Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, and a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

Then, the president's performance one year after the election.  The economy, health care, two wars and the promise to change Washington; what has Mr. Obama accomplished?  Joining us, New York Times columnist David Brooks, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Republican strategist Ed Gillespie.

Plus, our MEET THE PRESS Minute.  Twenty years ago this week, the Berlin Wall is torn down.  Tom Brokaw is the only journalist from a major news organization to broadcast those world-changing events live.  Today he joins us from the very spot where the wall once stood.

But first, 13 dead and more than 30 injured after Army psychiatrist Major Nadal Malik Hasan opens fire at Fort Hood Army post.  The New York Times reports this morning that investigators have tentatively concluded that the shooting rampage was not part of a terrorist plot.  Here this morning to talk about how this tragedy is affecting our troops, we're joined by the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. Army, the Chief of Staff General George Casey.

General, welcome to MEET THE PRESS.

GEN. GEORGE CASEY:  Thank you, David.

GREGORY:  I want to express my condolences for our fallen troops and their families this morning.

GEN. CASEY:  Thank you very much.

GREGORY:  I want to ask you about the investigation, though I know that you can't say very much.  The key piece, as The New York Times is reporting this morning, was Major Hasan acting alone or was this part of a larger plot?

GEN. CASEY:  I, I can't discuss, as you, as you said, I can't discuss the ongoing investigation or the suspect's possible motivations.  The--there was a briefing by the investigators yesterday, and I think you'll see--you'll continue to see updates on the investigation as we, as we go forward.  And I--although they have concluded to this point that he was the only one involved, when investigations like this start, they can go anywhere.

GREGORY:  There were warning signs about Major Hasan along the way, and some of the reporting is bearing this out.  Also from The New York Times reporting this morning, I want to put something up on the screen for our viewers and you to see.  "Investigators, working with behavioral experts, suggested that he might have long suffered from emotional problems that were exacerbated by the tensions of his work with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who returned home with serious psychiatric problems.  They said his counseling activities with the veterans appear to have further fueled his anger and hardened his increasingly militant views as he was seeming to move toward more extreme religious beliefs, all of which boiled over as he faced being shipped overseas, an assignment he bitterly opposed." How did the Army miss this?

GEN. CASEY:  I, I, I, I don't want to say that we missed it.  I, I think we, we're starting to see anecdotes like this come out, and we're encouraging all of our soldiers and leaders that have information about the suspect to give that information to the Criminal Investigation Division and to the, the FBI. I'll tell you, I, I worry a little bit about speculation like this based on anecdotes.  There's professional investigators looking at this.  They've got over 170 interviews now and, and they'll look at all this and they'll help us form a judgment.  But right now it's way too soon to be drawing any conclusions about what happened or what his motivations were.

GREGORY:  All right.  So in other words, the idea that he had hardened political or religious views against the United States, against our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, those are not true?  Those are not conclusions that should be drawn?

GEN. CASEY:  As, as I said, you--that's anecdotal evidence.  I think those things will be confirmed or denied over the course of the investigation.

GREGORY:  Did he express concerns, though--you say that there--you don't think signs were missed.  He wanted to be discharged from the Army, he had a poor evaluation from Walter Reed.  There were signs that this was somebody who was disaffected.  And as a psychiatrist, there are too few of those, he was not let out.

GEN. CASEY:  The--all those things could add up to a conclusion by the investigators that, that we should have seen something.  Now, I will tell you that, that we will take a hard look at ourselves as an Army, because we want to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.  And, and it's our ethos here to, to look hard at things, ask ourselves the hard questions and then adapt and adjust based on that.

GREGORY:  Let me ask you...

GEN. CASEY:  But it's just too early right now, David.

GREGORY:  ...let me ask you the larger question about how the military is handling this mounting toll on our troops of multiple deployments, combat deployments and, and what the psychological toll is.  Bob Herbert, in his column in The New York Times, put it this way:  "We can't continue sending service members into combat for three tours, four tours, five tours and more without paying a horrendous price in terms of the psychological well-being of the troops and their families, and the overall readiness of the armed forces to protection the nation." He also points out that the secretary of defense talked about that stigma associated with psychological problems that our troops have.

GEN. CASEY:  Mm-hmm.  This is something we, we are keenly aware of, and then--and you have heard me talk about the Army being out of balance for two and a half years.  And, and we have been working very hard to bring ourselves back in balance.  And balance being a point where the soldiers are deploying at sustainable rates.  We've made progress toward that, but we have, we have--still have a way to go.  We've also worked very, very hard to enhance what we're doing to--for the mental fitness of the force.  We started in 2007 with a major stigma reduction program that, frankly, has resulted in about a 40 percent increase in soldiers willing to come forward saying they have some symptoms of post-traumatic stress.  We are going very hard after our suicide rate.  As you know, last year we exceeded the civilian rate for the first time.  We, we've, we've contracted a $5 million, a $5 million study with the National Institute of Health to look hard at our suicides, and this is something that is not only going to help the Army, it's, it's going to help the country.  And most recently we've instituted a program called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, where we intend to give our soldiers the skills to build the resilience to deal with some of the challenges that they're facing.

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