Obama, what a nice guy

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...567821,00.html

1:42 p.m.: SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that Obama has cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The visits were planned for Friday. "Barack Obama will not be coming to us," a spokesperson for the US military hospital in Landstuhl announced. "I don't know why." Shortly before the same spokeswoman had announced a planned visit by Obama.

Yeah, that'll get him a lot of respect with the military folks...

[Gino]

The base's maximum occupancy couldn't hold all of Obama's media entourage.

[DarrinS]

The base's maximum occupancy couldn't hold all of Obama's media entourage.

+1

[Nbadan]

Oh the horror!

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I figured you'd be along to defend it Dan.

Someone might want to remind Obama that part of being Commander in Chief is to visit his troops from time to time, not to only show up if it's a convenient photo op.

As much as you have referenced wagging the dog during the Bush Administration, Obama's making him look like an amateur, and he's not even elected yet.

[clambake]

he's already told the troops he's not willing to trade anymore of them for a case of pennzoil.

[Oh, Gee!!]

and in the category of "reading too much into things," I present this thread.

[xrayzebra]

Maybe the troops indicated they were going to show up for his dog and pony show.

[Mr. Peabody]

Meanwhile, McCain held a press conference promising that under his administration more soldiers would end up spending time in foreign hospitals....

[JoeChalupa]

Oh brother.

[JoeChalupa]

I figured you'd be along to defend it Dan.

Someone might want to remind Obama that part of being Commander in Chief is to visit his troops from time to time, not to only show up if it's a convenient photo op.

As much as you have referenced wagging the dog during the Bush Administration, Obama's making him look like an amateur, and he's not even elected yet.

Obama looks more presidential than Bush ever has.

[Clandestino]

they probably couldn't round up enough soldiers to go.

[Nbadan]

A pic of McCains rally yesterday...

[Anti.Hero]

^ Too bad Obama just sapped their life force for defying him.



That's pretty funny though

[JohnnyMarzetti]

"We learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event. Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perveived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go," Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, USAF (Ret), Obama spokesman.

Damn idiots.

[Anti.Hero]

"We learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event. Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perveived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go," Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, USAF (Ret), Obama spokesman.

Damn idiots.

For sure. His minions could have come up with a better excuse than that. They didn't arrange it beforehand right? Must have been at the bottom of the list behind free beer and bratwurst.


Don't sweat it bro, our chosen one got an awesome workout at the local gym!

[Mr. Peabody]

For sure. His minions could have come up with a better excuse than that. They didn't arrange it beforehand right? Must have been at the bottom of the list behind free beer and bratwurst.


Don't sweat it bro, our chosen one got an awesome workout at the local gym!

That's not what happened, but don't let facts get in the way of your mischaracterization.

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, only one day before the planned visit, Pentagon overruled itself:

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.

The background on the military flap is that they [Obama campaign] had clearly planned a trip to Ramstein [AFB]. They were planning to visit the injured troops. And then the Pentagon explained that they couldn't go as part of a political trip. The Obama campaign thought that they could go, leave the press corps on the tarmac, and then take off with military escort and make this one last visit. As he did in Iraq, by the way. He visited a casualty unit in the Green Zone, without photographers, as part of the congressional delegation. But the military said that the rules are that he could only go as part of a previously-arranged congressional delegation, to Ramstein

Clearly, people in the campaign are really angry. They had wanted this to be the final stop on the trip here in Germany, and to do it without the press corps, just to do it on his own. But the objections of the military are that he is now being staffed by campaign aides, not by his Senate staff, who are the people of course with him when he went with Hagel and Jack Reed in Iraq. So, you know, the anger here in the campaign is pretty intense at the Pentagon. They feel that the military are drawing some lines--they're not saying this publicly of course--but drawing lines that they might have drawn for other people. He was planning to just go by himself, not with cameras, not with any entourage, as he had done in Walter Reed in the past in Washington, as he did in Iraq.

One interesting question: do Pentagon rules against campaigning by a candidate (vs. mere visits by a sitting senator) equally apply to the McCain's campaign as well?

Not always, said CNN in April, after McCain secured GOP nomination:

Stops by Sen. John McCain at U.S. Navy bases this week prompted internal Navy and Pentagon discussions, according to a military official with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The official said the discussions regarding the McCain appearances, including Wednesday's speech and private meetings at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where his son is midshipman, "were not contentious" and there is no allegation of any wrongdoing.

With Department of Defense rules prohibiting political campaigning on military bases, it was determined that in some cases McCain could visit the installations as a senator but could not engage in any political activity or have news media present.