McCain Camp Rips Obama for Cancelling Troop Visit

tamdar wrote
"It was the Senator who decided that leaving the campaign staff behind was less acceptable than visiting wounded US troops - with his Senate staff!"

Tamdar, we keep splitting hairs over this non issue. How about talking about Mc Cain's oil rig cancellation due to 400,000 gallons of oil spilled along 29 miles of the Mississippi? Is this of less concern than Obama's inability to make his planned military hospital visit? He had already visited one military hospital in Baghdad. Let's get real. Cancellations are not part of a nefarious plot. Things happen!! Enough of this ugly gottcha politics on both sides.

Greg Sargent at Election Central reported the following on 7/25:
"The Pentagon did in fact tell Obama that in this case, it was not only "inappropriate," but against DOD rules, for him to conduct the visit with campaign staff.

"We have longstanding Department of Defense policy in regards to political campaigns and elections," Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner told me. "We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff."

It's unclear how Obama could have made the visit at all, given the Pentagon's last-minute directives. NO SENATE STAFF WERE ON THE TRIP, and the Obama camp says they received the Pentagon's directives on Wednesday, after they (staff) were already abroad and out of Germany."

Each day McCain gives me a new not to vote for him. Aside for constantly chasing Obama with whines and complaints, he has done nothing to bolster his image and message. McCain has been reduced to a doddering old fool. If he had to withstand honest media scrutiny like Obama did early in the campaign, the old man would have blown by now. It's a shame that mccain compromised all his principles and convictions for the gop nomination. Now he's just a crotchety old man, grousing at everything under the sun. The media really does need to scrutinize his most recent and lately very frequent gaffes - we can't have that in a president, those types of mistakes can't be made consistently as McCain has made them.

McCain practiced two "unscripted" speaches. One to slam Obama if he went to visit the troops as part of a campaign stop and one to slam Obama if he didn't go to visit the troops. Luckily, McCain remembered the right speach this time. Can McCain do anything other than whine about Obama. Maybe Phil Gramm was talking about McCain when he called us a nation of whiners.

My goodness. Some stubborn refusal to acknowledge the facts here, or some terrible lack of reading skills. The Pentagon did not tell Obama that he couldn't visit wounded troops in Germany. For all those claiming that he cancelled his trip upon a request to do so by the Pentagon [and at the behest of a)McCain, b)Bush, or c)a Clinton], please read that again. The Pentagon did not ask the Senator not to visit the troops, just to leave the campaign staff out of it.

It was the Senator who decided that leaving the campaign staff behind was less acceptable than visiting wounded US troops - with his Senate staff!

Once again, for those slow readers in the back - the Pentagon did not ask Obama not to visit the troops. Refusal to acknowledge this is based on what?

Obama caught lying again. The military told him he could visit with his Senate staff-not his campaign staff and media entourage. He decided if he couldn't make a media spectacle out of it he wasn't going to see the troops. Now this is pathetic. Anyone voting for this fool needs their head examined.

Isabella 789 wrote:
"Wouldn’t you think that a Senator serving on the VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE would be anxious to meet with the “Wounded Warriors” who are being cared for overseas before being transported back stateside ?"

You are absolutely correct, Isabella 789. During the first part of his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Senator Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops. For the second part of his trip in Berlin, the senator had another visit planned to the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The visit was scheduled for today, Friday. It's simple. Reuters reported the Pentagon told him he could only go with his Senate delegation on the trip. Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed were already back in the US and did not continue with the trip to Berlin. HE HAD TO GO WITH A SENATE DELEGATION which had departed. Should I say it again? Let's just agree to disagree. Why not forget this, and I'll forget about Mc Cain's silly hissy fit this morning with Wall Street Journal Reporter Elizabeth Holmes. Senator Hothead is at it again.

No Jack Reed or Chuck Hagel = no admittance to military hospital!

Forget all the reteric.THANKS to Obama,McCain WINS!!! THANKS to Kerry and Gore Bush WON.These Libs will never learn. "THANK GOD"

Excellent!! Bravo Obama!! Obama listened to the Pentagon and agreed with their logic, as well as recognized their authority to express their view of his visit and the scope within which he should proceed; and consequently respectfully responded accordingly. However, I can't help but think that McWhiner had a hand in bringing the Dod policy to the Pentagon's attention. Good interference move, McWhiner - What an incredibly futile attempt to derail Obama's soul train. But be warned McShame, it is not only American people's way of life stake here, but the world's as it relates to the US. Other countries are praying for a US president who has the capacity to heal the relationships they have with the US as well as each other. Other countries look to us as the ambassadors of democracy; and to those countries Obama has visited thusfar, he is a breath of fresh air, as they all have made comments that indicate Obama is a man they feel they can trust and work with. We need the cooperation of all nations to stop the violence. The U.S. cannot do it alone. I say again, Bravo, Obama!! and to the rest of you, "Stop your McWhining!" From a 'Vet'

Why couldn't Obama have visited the troops with a minimum of staff and no media coverage...you know, to actually thank the troops without trying to reap any political benefit to himself? Would that have been so hard?

The truth about the planned event from the Obama campaign would be nice. I am sure there is protocol and one would think with 300 advisers that all the red tape would have been sorted out before the trip was planned. So...something stinks here as usual. In reality, it is my honest feeling that Barack finds it difficult to support and embrace the military as those that are doing good. He opposed this war and thus opposing all those that personally signed up to fight for his personal freedoms. If that hospital was full of community organizers that I think Barack has much more respect for, you can be sure he would move heaven and earth to get to them. Remember...his bud John Kerry has said many times that only losers are over in Iraq fighting.

What many of you are failing to understand is this: The Pentagon was going to view the visit as originally scheduled as a campaign event. Military installations are not allowed to be used as campaign events. Therefore if Obama wanted to visit he would have to do so as a Senator. Which also would mean no campaign airplane landing at the base. These last minute changes made it logistically impossible to go on with the visit. Obama did meet with wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The apolitical nature of our
military is absolute,
sacrosanct and fundamental
to our democracy.

The military brass as well as
our elected leaders should
always keep it that way.

McCain crossed the line
twice this year. In April,
he took down a photograph
of himself with Gen. Petraeus
from his website after heavy
criticism.

The following month he
did it again by sending a
fundraising email to supporters
in which he is shown shaking
hands with the General.

"Once the Pentagon got involved, Obama had to follow their "orders" or his good would be spun. "

Wrong.
Here is the Pentagon's official statement.
"The Pentagon in a statement cited longstanding Defense Department policy that prohibits military personnel or facilities from association with partisan political campaigns and elections.

"We told him he could visit Landstuhl (Regional Medical Center in western Germany) with his Senate staff, but not with his campaign staff," said Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Hibner."

Here is Obama's Campaign's version
""The decision that Senator Obama made with that information was that we would not have our wounded warriors put in that position of being involved in a campaign stop," the spokesman, Robert Gibbs said."

Looks like Obama does what he does best, "misspoke (lied)".

It has been a historical fact that in my short 39 years on this planet and a lifetime of being near or in the American military, the Dems earn the disdain our service members assign them. It is clear who knows how to support the troops and who knows only how to talk about supporting the troops. Obama is just another Dem paying lip service to those who have actually served our nation in a far greater manner than he has.

John McCain

Pro Life
Pro Military
Love of the "USA"

But the way who is McBush?? Never heard of him or her!!

Hope you do not vote because if you do not know who is running then stay home!!

Lets see Obama does not visit the troops in Iraq, just a handfull for meidia pis, does not see them in Afghanstan, He states before he leaves that this is NOT a Campaign visit but a Fact finding visit

But then all he does is campaign!!

He could of went and visited the troops without his employees from the media and just talked to them, but then again for him to give credit to our troops was like pulling teeth!!

All this trip was for was a publicity stunt!!

Anybody but Obama for President 08'

Obama and his speechwriters continue to have a problem with the truth, or at least proactively using Google. It wasn't the world that saved Berlin in 1948 or brought down the wall, it was hawkish American policies. If Obama had been around in 1948 he would have been likely for unconditional withdrawal while his spiritual mentor openly rooted for Uncle Joe. He doubtless opposed the hawkish Reagan policies that ended the Cold War. And contrary to his opening line he's not the first black American leader to address Berliners. Google reveals several speeches by a fellow named Colin Powell - remember him?

Boy, that's strange. I think I've noticed a pattern here. The McCain campaign criticized Obama for not going overseas, then they criticized him for going overseas. They also criticized his visit to the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now they're criticizing him for not visiting troops in Germany.

Its almost as if they were planning to criticize him no matter what he did!

Good job, Jake Tapper, for continuing to bring these important events to our attention!

So what I don't get is when Obama makes his military stops in the United States, they are on campaign funds, right? So what is the difference with overseas trips? Sounds like Obama was too busy hobnobbing with his billionaire German supporters than to spend a few hours with America's heroes...