McCain camp pounces on Obama troop visit

[__Kratos__]

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's campaign lashed out at Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday for canceling a visit to an American military base in Germany on Thursday.

"The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform," retired Lt. Col. Joe Reypya, speaking on behalf of the McCain, said in a statement. "Barack Obama ... broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next."

And in a McCain ad that began airing Saturday, Obama is chided for making "time to go to the gym" instead of visiting with wounded troops.

The ad is being televised in Colorado, Pennsylvania and the Washington area, according to The Associated Press. Watch the ad at Time.com

The incident is representative of the delicacy with which the Obama campaign has attempted to navigate the Illinois senator's entire journey abroad, at once staging elaborate photo-ops beamed back to the American media while at insisting that Obama's trip is not a political one by definition.

Obama arrived back in the United States on Saturday night.

The presumptive Democratic nominee had planned on visiting a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, housing American troops injured in Iraq. Video

The visit was expected to come after Obama's speech in Berlin, Germany, but the campaign suddenly announced Thursday that the stop had been canceled, saying Obama had determined that it would be "inappropriate."

"For a young man so apt at playing president, Barack Obama badly misjudged the important demands of the office he seeks," Reypya said in Saturday's statement. "Visits with world leaders and speeches to cheering Europeans shouldn't be a substitute for comforting injured American heroes," he added.

The Obama campaign responded Saturday by saying that the last thing Obama wanted "was to have injured soldiers get pulled into the back-and-forth of a political campaign."

More of the article here: Link

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Seems pretty crappy to ditch the troops...

[danielost]

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's campaign lashed out at Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday for canceling a visit to an American military base in Germany on Thursday.

"The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform," retired Lt. Col. Joe Reypya, speaking on behalf of the McCain, said in a statement. "Barack Obama ... broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next."

And in a McCain ad that began airing Saturday, Obama is chided for making "time to go to the gym" instead of visiting with wounded troops.

The ad is being televised in Colorado, Pennsylvania and the Washington area, according to The Associated Press. Watch the ad at Time.com

The incident is representative of the delicacy with which the Obama campaign has attempted to navigate the Illinois senator's entire journey abroad, at once staging elaborate photo-ops beamed back to the American media while at insisting that Obama's trip is not a political one by definition.

Obama arrived back in the United States on Saturday night.

The presumptive Democratic nominee had planned on visiting a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, housing American troops injured in Iraq. Video

The visit was expected to come after Obama's speech in Berlin, Germany, but the campaign suddenly announced Thursday that the stop had been canceled, saying Obama had determined that it would be "inappropriate."

"For a young man so apt at playing president, Barack Obama badly misjudged the important demands of the office he seeks," Reypya said in Saturday's statement. "Visits with world leaders and speeches to cheering Europeans shouldn't be a substitute for comforting injured American heroes," he added.

The Obama campaign responded Saturday by saying that the last thing Obama wanted "was to have injured soldiers get pulled into the back-and-forth of a political campaign."

More of the article here: Link

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Seems pretty crappy to ditch the troops...

Obama didn't go because he couldn't take campaign staff with him. Can't make it part of the campaign don't have time for the troops.

[keithisco]

Extract from OP

"

The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform," retired Lt. Col. Joe Reypya, speaking on behalf of the McCain, said in a statement. "Barack Obama ... broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next."

One minute McCain cronies are jumping down Obamas throat saying he shouldnt be acting like a President, the next minute they are whining on because he is not acting like a Commander-in-Chief.

You cant have it both ways.....

[__Kratos__]

You don't have to be commander in chief to visit the troops though.

[Startraveler]

Obama does visit the troops. From The Caucus:

Mr. Obama did visit wounded troops in Iraq, without telling the press, and he has noted private visits to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Mr. Obama and top aides have offered their reasons for canceling the trip several times.

The most recent comments center around retired Air Force Gen. Scott Gration, who is now a campaign aide and was traveling with Mr. Obama throughout his tour. According to NBC News, the Pentagon told General Gration that, as a member of the campaign, he did not have authorization to visit the troops.

Today, in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer, Mr. Obama said:

It was scheduled, we intended to go and we got wind that there was some concern that this might be perceived as political; because we were using campaign resources. And at that point, the last thing I wanted to do is to in anyway distract the terrific work that’s being done in terms of treating our troops, by getting it fouled up by a bunch of politics.

In fact, in his ad criticizing Obama for not visiting the troops, McCain includes some lovely footage of Obama visiting troops in Kuwait.

[__Kratos__]

He's being criticized because he canceled a trip to injured troops for other events. No one has said he's never visited troops before.

[Fluffybunny]

I am sure that mccains people had an alternate press release that would have blasted him if he had visited the wounded troops... I think it is that way for everything; spin every movement and every word to your benefit...

[__Kratos__]

I am sure that mccains people had an alternate press release that would have blasted him if he had visited the wounded troops... I think it is that way for everything; spin every movement and every word to your benefit...

Well people can be stupid visiting the wounded troops... Like Bush and his attacked by a tree story to the amputee. *shakes head* So you never know.

[HKCavalier]

I am sure that mccains people had an alternate press release that would have blasted him if he had visited the wounded troops... I think it is that way for everything; spin every movement and every word to your benefit...

And...they did!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/31/15.../840/236/560149

Didn't we all see this back in the Democratic Primaries? Hillary loses 11 states in a row and because she knows in her gut that she's lost, she goes kitchen sink on Barack. Didn't work so well for her and she was a HELL of a lot better at it than McCain's people are proving to be.

Well, Obama's overseas trip is McCains 11 losses. They know in their guts that McCain's lost, so they go all out to attack and discredit Obama any way they possibly can. Screw the facts, screw the issues, they gotta screw Obama!

Edited August 2, 2008 by HKCavalier