Barack Obama Watch: The 11 Reasons I Did Not Visit the Troops in Germany
Here are the latest ELEVEN reasons:
Explanation #1: Obama Adviser Robert Gibbs Said That Barack Obama Decided That It Would Be “Inappropriate” To Visit Troops In
· Gibbs: “Senator Obama Made The Decision That We Were Not Going To Have Wounded Men And Women Become Involved In A Campaign Event Or What Would Be Perceived As A Campaign Event.” “Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday the campaign was initially given clearance to land at Ramstein Air Base, but were told by the Pentagon Wednesday that the trip ‘would be viewed as a campaign stop.’ Obama also had plans to visit the
Explanation #2: Obama Adviser Retired Air Force General Scott Gration Said The Campaign Had Decided Not To Go To The Bases After The Pentagon Said “That The Visit Would Be Viewed Instead As A Campaign Event.” “From Berlin, USA TODAY’s Kathy Kiely files this statement from retired Air Force general Scott Gration, an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, about why the senator did not visit U.S. troops at Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his visit there yesterday or today: ‘Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country. We learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event. Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go.'” (Mark Memmott And Jill Lawrence, “Obama Campaign Says Pentagon Felt Visit To Wounded Troops Would Be A ‘Campaign Event,'”
Explanation #3: Obama Senior Strategist David Axelrod Said The Pentagon Told The Campaign That Obama’s Military Adviser “Should Not Come.” “Though the Rammstein visit had been planned for days, Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said that that Pentagon notified an Obama military advisor only yesterday or the day before that he should not come. The Pentagon ‘viewed this as a campaign event and therefore they said he should not come,’ Axelrod said.†(Lynn Sweet, “Pentagon Tells Obama Not To Visit U.S. Troops At German Base Because It Would Be Too Political,” Chicago Sun Times‘ “Sweet” Blog, http://blogs.suntimes.com, Posted 7/25/08)
Explanation #4: Obama Adviser Robert Gibbs Said The Pentagon Had Made Clear That The Visit Would Have To Be Considered Campaign Related. “Flying from
Explanation #5: MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Said That The Obama Campaign Accused McCain Foreign Policy Advisers Of Having Something To Do With Barack Obama Not Being Able To Visit The Base. MITCHELL: “They felt that they couldn’t win. They felt they were in a no win situation, that the Pentagon, perhaps the military with cooperation from some Republican operatives, that’s the scuttlebutt, that there have been some foreign policy advisers of John McCain with connections in the Pentagon who’ve had something to do with this but that is perhaps just the normal political paranoia of the season.” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 7/25/08)
· Mitchell: The Obama Campaign Was Angry That They Could Not Visit The Military Base With Campaign Aides. MITCHELL: “The military said that the rules are that he could only go as part of a previously arranged Congressional delegation to Ramstein. Clearly people in the campaign are really angry. They had wanted this to be the final stop on the trip here in
· Mitchell Reported That The Obama Campaign Accused The Military Of “Drawing Some Lines” That They Would Not Have For Others. MITCHELL: “They feel that the military are drawing some lines. They are not saying this publicly of course but drawing lines that they might not have drawn for other people.” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 7/25/08)
Explanation #6: Obama Adviser Robert Gibbs Blames The Pentagon For Outlining Regulations Concerning The Visit “Late In The Game.” “Gibbs explained the details of the planning of the visit, known as the tick tock, and suggested the Pentagon came to the Obama campaign late in the game citing a regulation issue in making the case for the Obama campaign to cancel the visit. … Per Gibbs, Gen. Gration had been in contact with the Pentagon for three weeks during the planning of the visit. On July 15 or 16, he said the campaign received a PPR, a ‘prior permission required’ – which was required to land a nonmilitary aircraft (Obama’s campaign plane) at an airbase in Germany. Everything was fine until Wednesday when Gen. Gration received new information from the Pentagon, saying that this visit would be viewed as a campaign stop. ” (Sunlen Miller, “Obama Camp Pins Scrubbed Troop Visit On Pentagon,” ABC News, 7/25/08)
Explanation #7: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports That A Stumbling Block Could Have Been An Aide’s Inability To Accompany Obama. Mitchell: “Privately, some people are suggesting that one of the issues was a general – Scott Gration — who travels with him who’s a campaign aide and retired air force general and that the general was told that he could not use his privilege as a retired member of the military to accompany Senator Obama because he is now joined the political campaign. … So that may have been one of the stumbling blocks.” (MSNBC, 7/25/08)
Explanation #8: In
· Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W-tete95u8
Explanation #9: In An Interview With Fox News, Barack Obama Said That He Did Not Want To Distract From The Troops. OBAMA: “No, not at all, it was scheduled, we intended to go, we had planned 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 want to do is to in any way distract the terrific work that’s being done in terms of treating our troops by getting it fouled up with a bunch of politics, so, since I have a chance to visit folks in Walter Reed, we had a chance to visit folks in Iraq, I didn’t want it to be a distraction.” (Fox News’ “Live,” 7/26/08)
· Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyyL3XtNVC4
Explanation #10: Obama Adviser Robert Gibbs Says The Campaign Never Said The Pentagon Prevented The Trip. GIBBS: “We never – Joe – we never said that the Pentagon prevented us from going. What we did say was that the Pentagon considered the trip to be a campaign trip. That’s when we decided that we weren’t going to put our men and women into a political campaign event. That’s why we decided not to go.” (MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” 7/28/08)
Explanation #11: Obama Adviser Robert Gibbs Says That The Campaign Decided Not To Go Because “Even [Barack Obama] Going Alone Would Likely Be Characterized By Some As A Political Event.” “If the story behind the story of the canceled troop visit has run its course, one question remains: Why didn’t Mr. Obama leave his aides behind, even the retired general, and make the visit by himself? ‘Even him going alone would likely be characterized by some as a political event,’ Mr. Gibbs said in an interview on Monday, adding, ‘He decided not to put the troops in that position.'” (Jeff Zeleny, “A Canceled Obama Visit, And The Story Behind It,” The
Flap will await the 12th and so on………
Will Obama be defined by Jeremiah Wright who called Barack “just another pol” or by Obama’s “all about me” snobbery?
Hard to tell at this time.
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