Obama’s Germany Troop Misstep
As you all probably know by now, during Barack Obama’s trip to Germany last Friday he decided not to visit wounded American troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Instead, he ended up going to the gym. The situation has created a headache for Obama, what with the media reporting on it, and the McCain campaign jumping on to it right away with an ad blasting Obama.
Obama explains his decision:
“[The fact that Scott Gration, a retired major general and Obama advisor would not be allowed to go in with Obama] triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political, and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns,” Mr. Obama said. “So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been considered a political controversy of some sort, what we decided was that we not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops that were there.”
I also think Obama walked into a bit of a trap here, and that the McCain camp had been hoping for something like this to happen. I also think Obama made the wrong decision for one reason: there was possibly another way.
I was watching the O’Reilly Factor last night, and he had on Karl Rove to discuss the situation. Now, I don’t agree with Karl Rove on almost many counts, and whatever his actions while working for the President, he’s still a political genius. I think what he said last night has some merit (emphasis mine):
ROVE: Well, look. Five statements here. One of which, you know, is subject to argument, which is why did he not go? This says, you know, the ad says he didn’t go because they wouldn’t let him take a camera. He himself in front of No. 10 Downing on the 26th says the reason he didn’t go was because they told him that his campaign adviser couldn’t go with him, that only Senate staff could accompany him, and that that’s why he decided not to go.
If I were him, I would have said, “Fine, I will go without my campaign adviser,” and done it in a — look, this would have been a private event.
O’REILLY: Why do you — let’s cut through all this. Why do you think Barack Obama didn’t go?
ROVE: Because I think he thought “This was going to be too much of a headache for me. I’m tired. I’m at the end of an 8- or 9-day foreign trip.
O’REILLY: And I just don’t want to deal with the blowback.
ROVE: I just don’t want to deal with it. I just don’t — and look, there would not have been any blowback. That’s the thing. People — the absence of his campaign adviser — can you imagine John McCain trying to say how dare he go see these wounded veterans while he’s on a campaign swing through Europe?
O’REILLY: No, but I can imagine people…
ROVE: That would have been nutty.
Say what you will about Karl Rove, but I think that what he said about going alone would have been a better choice for Obama. He still would have been able to visit the troops, and he wouldn’t be in this headache right now. I also think what Rove said about Obama being tired also has some merit. The man was on a jam-packed schedule every day.
I think the McCain campaign has a right to go after him for this; after all, Obama wouldn’t stop using “100 years” for a long time, even after McCain clarified himself. However, for wanting to go after Obama for this misstep, McCain’s ad editor used an odd juxtaposition to do it. Thirteen seconds into the ad, the narrator notes that Obama went to a gym instead of visiting with the troops. However, the video used is Obama playing a some hoops during a trip to Kuwait…wait for it…with the troops! Here’s some video proof if you need it. Go up to about three minutes.
So, to wrap it up, Obama needs to think about his decisions more carefully and explore other avenues for making a stop to visit the troops, while McCain needs a new ad editor.
imo - no reason for him to be in Germany at this point anyway. he’s running for President of the United States, not of the European Union.
As always the left-wingers are the one’s to trust.
From TPM.
"A Pentagon spokesperson confirms to me that because of longstanding Department of Defense regulations, Pentagon officials told Obama aides that he couldn’t visit the base with campaign staff. This left Obama with little choice but to cancel the trip, since the plan to visit with campaign aides had been in the works for weeks."
"No Senate staff was on the trip, and the Obama camp says they received the Pentagon’s directives on Wednesday, after they were already abroad."
Be a bit more circumspect next time, Michael.
Seems to me like the peddling of rumour and lies have started. Time to lose all scepticism and doubt about Obama - it will be fake, and planted. Now nothing is off the table.
So the campaign staff couldn’t have stayed in the plane for a couple hours? Maybe themselves gone to the gym? Worked on prep for the speech (was the troop visit to be before or after the speech)?
Utsu: You’ve been reading my entries for a while, so you know I’m not one to buy into BS about Obama coming from the right. That doesn’t mean all criticism coming from them isn’t valid.
I still think it’s an idea, and if he didn’t, he probably should have inquired about it.
"So the campaign staff couldn’t have stayed in the plane for a couple hours? Maybe themselves gone to the gym?"
The entire staff probably has a specific schedule, and to make all of them remain in one place would have caused problems. That’s one explanation as to why the sudden information from the DoD made the visit problematic. It does show that the lack of attention wasn’t the factor.
"Utsu: You’ve been reading my entries for a while, so you know I’m not one to buy into BS about Obama coming from the right. That doesn’t mean all criticism coming from them isn’t valid."
I’m just seeing the same memes, the same spin, the same collectives and the same attempts to repeat a lie more frequently than the accused can defend or deny the accusations. We need to start treating a lot of people like a shepherd who cries wolf, because they are not holding sway over another campaign.
The charge itself is ridiculous mostly because Obama had already visited wounded troops in Iraq without any media fanfare (reporters on the ground testified to the fact that they were ditched for this purpose) and has done so in the past. So the charge "he doesn’t care about our troops" is ludicrous on it’s face.
Obama was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. Had he visited them and a single solitary photograph had been filtered, McCain would have blasted him for using soldiers for political gain. I agree that Obama could have possibly handled it better, or rather that his campaign might have lacked the proper level of communication with the Pentagon in order to avoid the misunderstanding, but that does not excuse McCain for the tactic. Ironically, it’s McCain exploiting the troops for political gain in this case.
I think if McCain had blasted him for that, it’d be petty. As for the ad, I agree with you fully. Yet, no one’s talking about that.
That there’s some bias against McCain, that is…
Did you write that without laughing Utsu? What possible alteration in time is there from the candidate and staff visiting the troops for x number of minutes versus the candidate visiting the troops and the staff elsewhere for the same x minutes.he screwed the pooch, it happens, call it for what it is.
"What possible alteration in time is there from the candidate and staff visiting the troops for x number of minutes versus the candidate visiting the troops and the staff elsewhere for the same x minutes."
It’s an explanation, I have no way to prove its veracity. If he just didn’t want the hassle then he still prioritized wrong - the media wouldn’t have been with him and he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone bleating about his exploitation of the visit. It would have been nice to visit even if no one knew and if it leaks that he visited that would only look good.