Obama's DisGate Day 4

When I first read that Barack Obama had skipped a meeting with the troops on Hot Air, I really didn't think that this story would have that much legs. Don't get me wrong, it is at least as newsworthy as the speech in Berlin. However, given the media the way it is, I thought it would mostly be fodder for the conservative blogs. This story has slowly been getting legs. First, they had one of their surrogates, Retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya, give this stinging response.

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. Barack Obama had scheduled a visit with wounded American troops who have served with honor and distinction in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next. Several explanations were offered, none was convincing and each was at odds with the statements of American military leaders in Germany and Washington. For a young man so apt at playing president, Barack Obama badly misjudged the important demands of the office he seeks. Visits with world leaders and speeches to cheering Europeans shouldn’t be a substitute for comforting injured American heroes.”

Then, they just put up this ad.




He was also on ABC This Week with George Stephanopolous talking about it.

If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn’t visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event," McCain told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview to air Sunday on "This Week".

...

But McCain questioned his rival's justification: "I know of no Pentagon regulation that would have prevented him from going there -- without the media and the press and all of the associated people. Nothing that I know of would have kept him from visiting those wounded troops."

McCain went on to note that "in Landstuhl, Germany, when I went through, I visited the hospital. ... I think people make a judgment by what we do and what we don’t do. He certainly found time to do other things."

The Obama campaign, for its part, just responded through their surrogate Jack Reed (D Rhode Island)

I was with Senator Obama last week as we met privately with troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Senator Obama listened to their concerns and expressed his gratitude for their service without press or fanfare. He cares for our troops deeply and has worked hard to give them not only the resources they need, but also honor their service with a clearly defined mission and by providing them with the support they have earned when they come home. And just as Senator McCain's support of President Bush's veto of funding for our troops doesn't mean he does not support them, neither does Senator Obama's insistence that we not give George Bush a blank check.

It is certainly not a front burner issue, yet, though McCain is doing his best to make it one. The longer it is in the public consciousness the better it is for the McCain campaign.



Just as an aside, the so called "blank check" that Senator Reed talks about is for funding for the surge while troops were still in the war theater. That is the operation that even the Associated Press now admits has the U.S. on the brink of victory. This is the same surge that Senator Obama initially opposed back when it was politically popular to do so in the beginning of 2007. It is a decision that he can't seem to bring himself to admit was wrong.