20 Comments Add your own

• 1. Eric T  |  July 27th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

  Obama should have showed up to pay some respect, or he could have even stopped at a local beergarden, or someplace where some off duty troops would be hangin around, and visit for while. but, I think its pretty clear Obama has very little confidence in our troops, from his support for the “cut and run” surrender to Al Qaida, democrat strategy. To not speaking out against leftist colleges that won’t allow military recruiters on their campuses. You don’t ever here Obama saying anything like, ” The U.S. troops are the finest troops in the world”. or anything uplifting or encouraging about our military.

  Obama might as well just take the picture in the tank, with the big helmet like Mike Dukakis did. I just can’t picture Obama as Supreme Commander of the U.S Military, maybe a diplomat, Secretary of State, ect… but a year ago this guy was ready to surrender to some local militias and small bands of foreign fighters in Iraq. This guy can’t be put in charge of the military.

• 2. Joe  |  July 28th, 2008 at 8:08 am

  That damn commie wasn’t even wearing a flag lapel pin!! I am outraged!

  Yet ANOTHER non-story trying to blast Obama on something causing foolish (dare I say FAKE) outrage from the McCain camp.

  Hmmm… from a VET website…

  McCain is demonstrably criticizing Obama for following a Pentagon rule to which the McCain campaign itself has been subjected recently. That’s a fact. So this seems to be a simple cheap shot at Obama, in the hopes that the media won’t be internet savvy enough (i.e., able to use Google) to figure out the whole story.

  More news from a different site…

  Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that decision to cancel the trip was made by the Obama senate office.

  Whitman said that the Defense Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs had contacted the senator’s office in recent days to remind his aides that Defense Department policy that prohibits military personnel or facilities from association with partisan political campaigns and elections. Whitman said that defense officials did not dissuade Obama from visiting the Landsthul Medical Center. But it appears they were squeamish about the idea of wounded soldiers being used in a campaign event, even if no reporters or photographers were to attend.
  …
  The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.”

  Or here

  Senior strategist Robert Gibbs said the visit to the military hospital in Germany had been in the works for about three weeks, with Gration serving as the campaign’s contact with the Pentagon.
  The Pentagon cleared the Obama plan to land at the base on either July 15 or 16, Gibbs said. The plane needed the clearance because of restrictions on landing nonmilitary aircraft there, he said.
  But then on Wednesday, Gration told Obama aides that the Pentagon had informed him that the visit could be viewed as a campaign stop.
  “They cited a regulation,” Gibbs said of their point of contact, described as legislative affairs in the office of the secretary.
  “We believed that based on the information we received that any presence, even his own and only his own, would get into a back and forth on whether his own presence was a campaign event,” Gibbs said.
  Obama decided on the flight Wednesday from Tel Aviv to Berlin not to visit the hospital.

• 3. Joe  |  July 28th, 2008 at 8:10 am

  That damn commie wasn’t even wearing a flag lapel pin!! I am outraged!

  Yet ANOTHER non-story trying to blast Obama on something causing foolish (dare I say FAKE) outrage from the McCain camp.

  Hmmm… from a VET website…
  http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1671>

  McCain is demonstrably criticizing Obama for following a Pentagon rule to which the McCain campaign itself has been subjected recently. That’s a fact. So this seems to be a simple cheap shot at Obama, in the hopes that the media won’t be internet savvy enough (i.e., able to use Google) to figure out the whole story.

  More news from a different site… http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/07/obama_defends_canceling_troop.html

  Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said that decision to cancel the trip was made by the Obama senate office.

  Whitman said that the Defense Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs had contacted the senator’s office in recent days to remind his aides that Defense Department policy that prohibits military personnel or facilities from association with partisan political campaigns and elections. Whitman said that defense officials did not dissuade Obama from visiting the Landsthul Medical Center. But it appears they were squeamish about the idea of wounded soldiers being used in a campaign event, even if no reporters or photographers were to attend.
  …
  The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.”

  Or here

  Senior strategist Robert Gibbs said the visit to the military hospital in Germany had been in the works for about three weeks, with Gration serving as the campaign’s contact with the Pentagon.
  The Pentagon cleared the Obama plan to land at the base on either July 15 or 16, Gibbs said. The plane needed the clearance because of restrictions on landing nonmilitary aircraft there, he said.
  But then on Wednesday, Gration told Obama aides that the Pentagon had informed him that the visit could be viewed as a campaign stop.
  “They cited a regulation,” Gibbs said of their point of contact, described as legislative affairs in the office of the secretary.
  “We believed that based on the information we received that any presence, even his own and only his own, would get into a back and forth on whether his own presence was a campaign event,” Gibbs said.
  Obama decided on the flight Wednesday from Tel Aviv to Berlin not to visit the hospital.

• 4. John Nickelsen  |  July 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am

  It’s great to see Obama’s true colors come shining through…..doesn’t give a damn about wounded soldiers but loves the photo ops which show him “Presidential”.

  I look forward to seeing more of the “real” Obama in coming months.

• 5. John Nickelsen  |  July 28th, 2008 at 9:36 am

  So glad to see Obama’s “true colors come shining through”. I look forward to seeing more of the real Obama, as opposed to the Obama contrived by his handlers, over the next few months.

• 6. Joe  |  July 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am

  http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/07/obama_arrives_home.html

  UPDATE: Jake Tapper notes the ad also claims that Obama cancelled the trip because he was told he couldn’t bring the media. There is absolutely no evidence for that one. The campaign insists that the plan had been to leave us at the airport, and the military has confirmed that arrangements were being made to hold media and staff there at a passenger terminal.
  As I have heard the campaign’s explanations for this decision over the past few days, as well as the attacks, I am convinced that it comes down to something that campaign strategist Robert Gibbs told reporters on the plane: When the campaign learned of the Pentagon’s concerns (Wednesday night), they realized that, however they structured the hospital visit, they were going to come in for criticism.
  So they had a decision to make, and they had to do it on the fly. Their choice was to take a hit for going (even if it was a private detour from a very public campaign swing, Obama was going to be accused of using wounded troops for political gain), or a hit for not going (the charge would be–and has been–that Obama didn’t care about wounded troops). They decided to take the latter. We’ll see, as this controversy plays out, whether this was the right decision.

• 7. KMorrison  |  July 28th, 2008 at 1:43 pm

  What Obama can’t travel without an entourage? The rules have been in existence for a long time, all he had to do is drop the press and campaign staff and have his security detail and driver take him to the hospital. He and his campaign are either logistally inept, or they just decided they’d rather get a workout in at the Ritz than visit wounded soldiers.

• 8. Mary  |  July 28th, 2008 at 10:55 pm

  Joe: You may indeed say that McCain’s outrage was fake–if you wish to go on record as BEING WRONG. But there’s nothing fake about the outrage of millions and millions of American voters (that’s American, not German or French) who consider showing respect to our wounded troops a Presidential requirement. Sorry, Joe, but by definition, that which is indefensible cannot be defended. To snub today’s troops will certainly be to ignore tomorrow’s veterans. Would Obama break his oft-repeated pledge to support our veterans? Given his record of lying: in a heart beat!

• 9. congressive  |  July 29th, 2008 at 3:05 am

  The Murdoch Street Journal scoops The Moonie Times again!

  Rupert, and not Sun Myung, may well be omniscient after all.

• 10. congressive  |  July 29th, 2008 at 3:46 am

  OH LOOK, THE TRUTH COMES OUT!

  Let the FactCheck.org smears begin!

• 11. Joe  |  July 29th, 2008 at 7:58 am

  Good ol’ factcheck.org.

  KM and Eric, does that make some of that fake-outrage go away a bit?

  Not that it matters… McCain’s ad is out there now spreading the lie.

  Straight talk express should be called the “Double Talk Express”.

• 12. Eric T  |  July 29th, 2008 at 11:47 am

  Joe + Congressive

  That fact check, and other posts that attempt to sanitize Obama, really don’t have much substance, it is kind of like spraying perfume on a turd.

• 13. KMorrison  |  July 29th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

  The fact remains he had a scheduled visit with wounded soldiers that he cancelled. He blamed it on the Pentagon, yet their regulations have existed way before this trip. Did he skip it because of no cameras or no adivisors? Only he knows; what we do know is he let down wounded American soldiers and has no excuse for it.

• 14. Joe  |  July 29th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

  Eric T, did you even look at factcheck.org? It is by no means a leftwing site. It points out inconsistencies with Obama ads as well as McCain ads.

  KM,
  Was it because of no cameras? No. Since the media were going to stay back in the plane anyway.
  Was it because of no advisors? Well… who knows. The advisor that put it together was a retired military man. He wouldn’t have been allowed to go in with Obama.
  Did Obama visit plenty of other wounded troops in Iraq, Afghanastan and at Walter Reed without media or advisors? Yep.

  So I still call fake outrage.

  If you want to say that you are mad because he “let down the troops”, then fine. However, the point of this post way up there at the top of this page is that Obama cancelled because no media was allowed. That would be why the headline reads…
  Obama Snubs Wounded Troops Because of No Camera/No Staff Rules

• 15. KMorrison  |  July 29th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

  I have no qualms about that title. The Obama campaign’s own statements make it appears he cancelled due to the Pentagon’s ‘no campaigning’ rules otherwise known as ‘no camera/ no staff’ regulations. I’m glad he has seen wounded soldiers without cameras previously, but that isn’t proof that this time media attention didn’t play a role in his decision to cancel on those wounded soldiers.

• 16. Michelle Carroll  |  July 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  Check out McCain’s new campaign video!

  http://youtube.com/watch?v=FiPAz8494Vs

• 17. Thornsnail  |  July 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pm

  Obamas Photo Op Shame
  Mr. Obama, wounded Soldiers Shouldnʼt Be Photo Opportunities! You are against winning the war in Iraq, your plan of surrender a year ago, versus the surge, has failed and now you pass on meeting our wounded veterans in Germany because you can’t take the media along! You sir are a vile creature!

• 18. Al Kaline  |  July 31st, 2008 at 7:06 am

  Obama / Osama Whats The Difference
  He wants America out of Iraq and Afghanistan. He is OK with letting 12,000,000 illegal aliens remain in the United States. He is OK with negotiating with Iran. He had a Muslim Father. His stance is arguably Anti Israel. Hard to spot the difference isn’t it?

• 19. kmg  |  August 1st, 2008 at 8:03 am

  You should really rename this “Blogs for Barak Obama’s Defeat.” You have to go all the way back to July 7th to find a positive post about McCain. Everything since then has been negative about Obama. Just like McCain’s campaign.

• 20. Howard  |  August 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am

  OBAMA ADS GO NEGATIVE …
  Well, I guess the messiah is just a two bit politician after all. Obama’s supporters complain that Americans are too stupid to choose a candidate based on issues, but they stick with Obama, even after he has flip flopped on all the issues … as if to say “I will continue to support Obama, no matter what he says, does, or believes. Blind loyalty is what’s really stupid.

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