Friday, July 25, 2008

Obama CHOSE to Not Visit the Wounded Soldiers

Presumptive Democrat nominee Barak Obama had an opportunity to visit wounded US troops at Landstuhl in Germany, but chose not to do so.

He first said the visiting the troops would be disrespectful. That did not fly.

His campaign then said that the pentagon would not allow him to visit. That did not fly, because pentagon officials advised that Obama was welcome to visit - but he could not take his campaign staff & media entourage in with him. Obama could have visited the troops in his official capacity as a US Senator, but he (or someone not very bright on his campaign staff) made a choice to not visit.

Being somewhat versed in political campaigns, I know the details of things like this are usually handled by staff. Regardless of who made the blunders, Obama is the candidate. Not only did the campaign first make a dumb remark that the visit would not be respectful, after that the campaign told an untruth, trying to pass the blame onto the military officials at the pentagon. Thankfully, the pentagon officials set the record straight. Obama, his campaign, made a huge blunder by not visiting and made it worse by erroneously foisting blame on pentagon officals.

Think about what might have been. Obama could have visited the wounded troops as a Senator. The fawning media who are with him would have made sure that story came out & out big. Obama could have said something along the lines that "while it's a rule to not have media on such visits, it's also the right thing to do to show respect to our brave, wounded fighting men & women." Obama desparately needs blue collar & military affiliated voters, & this could have helped him immensely with these voters. However, his campaign really screwed up big-time.



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