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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Though He Hit the Jackpot, Sergeant Plans to Return to Iraq for a 3rd Tour

Crossposted at the Tennessean's Political Forum.

After completing two tours in Iraq, Sgt. Wayne Leyde won $1 million from a scratch-and-win lotto ticket on Tuesday.

Now that he's won, Leyde, a 26-year-old member of the Washington National Guard, says he's still going to volunteer to go back to Iraq for a third tour and won't spend any of the money in the meantime.

Leyde was driving near his home in Mead, Washington when he stopped at a store on the side of the road and bought a ticket.

"I decided to walk into a local Zip Trip. I got a Coke and beef jerky and walked up to the counter and thought I'd pick up a few scratch tickets and try my luck. I was on my way out when the lady said, 'Do you have a lucky scratch coin?'

"I said 'no, you gave me a dime and nickel back.'"

"She said 'no, try this,'" handing Leyde a penny. "On my way home I started scratching tickets. They were losers. I'm thinking, boy, that lady didn't know what she was talking about."

Leyde couldn't believe it when he scratched a winning ticket, but he still plans to return to Iraq.

"It was a commitment I made about three months ago. I'm going to stick to it," Leyde said about his decision...

Very cool, definitely representative of the high quality of our military members.

The Eyes of Our Soldiers

One has to click on this to experience it.