Barack Obama canceled a pre-planned visit to the troops in Germany yesterday after being told by the Pentagon that the trip would violate a Pentagon policy prohibiting campaign stops on military installations. No problem there.
However, the McCain campaign is now blasting Obama:
The McCain camp has nonetheless been using Obama's canceled trip to insinuate that he's anti-troops. "Barack Obama is wrong," McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers said in a statement yesterday. "It is never 'inappropriate' to visit our men and women in the military."
The problem here is that the McCain campaign was denied a visit to a military base under the same policy back in April. Of course, there was no outcry or false outrage from Brian Rogers at that time.
From CNN:
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.
McCain campaign officials said Thursday they intentionally did not campaign on military property."We follow the rules," said senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt.
Because all three presidential candidates are sitting senators, DoD officials have privately noted for some weeks that the whole matter of drawing the line between Senate business and campaigning is sensitive.
A U.S. Army official told CNN there are no pending requests from any of the campaigns to visit Army bases at this time. He noted that Sen. Barack Obama recently visited Fayetteville, North Carolina, but did not go to Fort Bragg; and Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Killeen, Texas, but did not go to Fort Hood.
For his Wednesday visit to the U.S. Naval Academy -- of which he is a graduate -- McCain was allowed to make a political appearance at the academy's football stadium because it is privately owned property and is not owned or run by the U.S. military.
Earlier in the day, when McCain had breakfast with midshipmen on academy grounds, it was closed to the press and considered a private event.
The military spokesman points out that any U.S. senator could also request to visit the academy or any military installation.
But the Navy declined a McCain campaign request to speak at the Naval Aviation Museum at the naval base in Pensacola, Florida, because it is a military owned installation and is located on the base, the official said.
McCain did attend an airshow over the weekend at the Navy base in Meridian, Mississippi, because it was open to the general public. But he declined to answer political questions from reporters traveling with him.
I understand that the McCain campaign is disorganized and pathologically clueless when it comes to utilizing the media, but they're clearly being dishonest in this case. 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.
"We follow the rules," Steve Schmidt from the McCain campaign said.
Exactly. And they have no problem attacking Obama for doing the same. That's the very definition of "double standard."
Regardless, the Pentagon will now be under more pressure to keep the playing field even--and to keep the policy consistent on both sides.
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When you enlist into the military you do so with full knowledge that you are a piece of government property. You also realize you are providing security for the rest of America’s citizens. It is a commitment of the highest undertaking.
To this day I do not know how many lives I saved nor lost. You play a game of surmising. “If I did not reach them in time, they could have made it to shore. I did not reach them in time, yet they were already dead.” I will never know the numbers on either side of the equation.
Yet, for a politician (McCain; a brother vet no less) to degrade another politician (Obama) for not visiting wounded soldiers, airmen, sailors, and coastguardsmen when Obama was told not to see them by the State Department/Pentagon/executive branch/bush administration is a politicizing which should be unconscionable for McCain.
I expect and demand better performance from a brother vet.
Mike
SAR Unit Training Officer, Liaison Officer, Coxswain
USCG Vet
Americans vote, the soldiers cast absentee ballots, which go to their respective states, which have electoral votes. In my opinion, even seeing a fraction of those troops would have been better for him than that big speech (which was called the centerpiece of his trip, and probably took a lot of time and money to organize).
Germans don't vote in the upcoming election, Germany has 0 electoral votes, he was on a congressional delegation but took the time to organize that big event, and probably gave that specific troop visit little thought (he managed to visit troops in other nations that are a lot riskier than Germany during that trip).
McCain has met with troops too, many times, more than Obama has (due to his limited time in the Senate). Oh well, some people liked the speech, but of course the media that loves Obama made sure to edit out the boo's he got, I saw that once right after the speech happened, than the whole love-fest took over again and they decided to only show the 10 second clips where he got cheered.
For extra credit, compare it to the efforts of, say, German soldiers during the Siege of Stalingrad.
Maybe you need help with the concept of heroism.
Seems like Obama can't win with these guys no matter what he does.
Did the Pentagon Help Smear Barack Obama Yesterday?
"And, no, the press wasn't going with Obama, Hagel and Reed to the medical facility--that had already been decided."
Face it, he screwed this one up big time. I don't think he did this because he doesn't support the troops and not because he is unpatriotic. I sincerely believe it was due to priorities. It isn't evil to desire obtaining the biggest bang for the buck. But it is very disappointing that his priorities are out of whack.
Oh, and please don't try to sell the press as being unbiased. It is indisputable that they are. Americans of all stripes are finally waking up to this fact.
He was on campaign funds..
That made it a political trip
What part of that do you have a hard time understanding??
He thought that he could do it if he left all of the reporters behind and just took one staffer with him..The retired AF General Gration..
But the Pentagon said a BIG FAT NO!
I am blaming the Pentagon more than O on this one... because they pretty much over ruled the rules they have for CONUS visits to bases.....
It was like it was something different since this was OCONUS
Just ike Bush forbade State Department personnel from attending the speech because they were OCONUS
thanks for letting us know about this. I had absolutely no idea that this had occurred. Yet another example of John McCain's hypocrisy!
It is pretty pathetic.