Posted on 07/25/2008 11:56:10 AM PDT by kristinn
Was the Pentagon's exclusion of Obama foreign policy advisor Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, USAF (Ret.) from Barack Obama's planned visit with wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany the reason for Obama's cancellation of the visit?
Piecing together the information being reported in various news outlets points in that direction.
Der Spiegel first reported the story in a brief note on their live thread on Obama's visit to Berlin yesterday morning (EDT). Free Republic was the first to pick up the story. From there it was picked up by Hot Air, then spread through the blogosphere and into the the mainstream press.
Obama's campaign issued their first statement on the matter, saying Obama cancelled out of concerns the visit would be seen as political. That didn't wash when Obama opened his speech in Berlin saying he was not there as a candidate for president but as a 'proud citizen of the United States and a citizen of the world.'
The Obama campaign issued a second statement that blamed the Pentagon for the cancellation.
Today, Obama's staff held three briefings within forty-five minutes on O-Force One in an effort to get their story striaght. they added supposed Pentagon objections to the campaign plane and staff landing at Ramstein.
Last night NRO reported a confidential source informed them that an Obama staffer had a fit when told they couldn't participate in the visit to Landstuhl:
A very interesting email from a source I must protect suggests that Obama's visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center had the green light until a campaign staffer raised a stink about going with Obama. (There are rules meant to ensure candidates do not use soldiers or military bases for campaign purposes, and they state that personal and committee staff may accompany a sitting senator on a visit but campaign staff may not.) I am told that when one of Obama's campaign staff was told he or she would be denied access, the visit was canceled.
Today, responding to media queries, the Pentagon said they informed Obama that while he could bring a Senate staffer and a security team, he could not bring Gen. Gration and another campaign staffer named Jeff Kiernan.
Gen. Gration had served at Ramstein in the early 1990s.
The Pentagon informed the Obama campaign of the exclusions on Wednesday, even though the trip had been planned at least a week ahead of time. The Obama campaign says he decided to cancel the visit on the flight from Israel to Germany.
The Pentagon told the Los Angeles Times that Obama's campaign plane, dubbed O-Force One by his travelling press corps, was cleared to land at Ramstein AFB and that the press corps and Obama campaign staff would be accomodated in the passenger lounge while Obama visited the wounded at nearby Landstuhl.
This explanation by the Pentagon that Obama's plane would be allowed to land and his staff and press taken care of leaves a big question as to what was so objectionable that Obama cancelled.
It couldn't be the media restriction as some have speculated. Obama visited wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center last month without the press. He visited troops in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq without the media. The military released official photos of the war zone visits, the only exception being of Obama's visit to a military hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad.
So that still leaves the question, what brought on the cancellation. The only thing that sticks out is the Pentagon's informing Gen. Gration that he would have to stay in the passenger lounge wth the other Obama staffers and the press. Was that too much for that retired general's ego to accept? And did Obama cancel the trip in order to assuage Gration's ego?
And, even more important, is Obama lying to the American people about it?
I’m not even sure it’s fair to malign weasels.
You would think these press persons ferrets weasels travelling with Obama would be able to ferret out this stuff.
Time will tell. I was stationed in Turkey with Scott Gration in 1988, and oddly at the time he said his ambition was to be the President of the US. He was serious. http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080610130817AAxwlJ9
Not anymore!
I hope not, if the idjit doesn’t know about campaign staffers in military hospitals!
Dalight,
Nothing to do here with race. Don’t fall into the Obamessiah trap of demanding silence if facts should prove politically incorrect in their presentation. He is basing his entire campaign on the belief that McCain will fall for such nonsense.
Under other circumstances they wouldn't. The retired general is a member of Obama's political staff & so barred under the Pentagon policy. Would they have bent the rules for another retired officer? Who knows?
Asking the question, however, feeds into the conclusion that Obama wants you to draw from this.
Notice that the good General has a Purple Heart. Any details?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Gration has been pushing to get into VP consideration. The Obamessiah really needs someone with strong military and/or other national security credentials b/c everyone knows he is such a lightweight. Speculation here, Gration may have so much invested in trying to salvage Obambi’s credibility and standing related to military issues that he went ballistic when the DoD was not going to fold and allow them to do the kind of campaign stop they wanted.
After a career of 'rank has it's privilege' the poor fellow was undoubtedly upset.
Gration, it appears, joined the trip in Amman, Jordan on 7/22.
Caption of photo in the article linked below:
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, hugs his foreign policy advisor Scott Gration as he arrives at Marka Airport in Amman, Jordan, Tuesday, July 22, 2008.
If I recall, the “campaign portion” of the trip began in Amman.
Spot on! Based upon my experience dealing with retired flag officers, they have an inflated sense of their own influence and cannot handle being told no. SOme of them pitch hissy fits like adolescents (I was threatened by a retired flag when I declined to certify his wife and son as official travelers to take a military flight, who took it so far as calling the Secretary’s lawyer). It is amazing to watch retired flag and general officers try to pull rank to get some personal favor — most of the time, it was because they bragged about their influence and would have to admit that they are not all that and a bag of potato chips. As you point out, it was likely the first time this fellow had been told no in many years. I have absolutely no doubt that Gration started calling active duty officers up the chain at EUCOM and blew a gasket when they all said no. The Obama campaign was caught in a rock and a hard place — do they still go and risk a story about a retired general bullying current servicemembers by using his contacts in the Pentagon to threaten them, or blow it off and try to spin their way out of this? This story shows an amazing lack of discipline in the campaign.
Gration just killed his career.
They do not hear it from 0-4 or 0-5s, who was the likely deliverer of the original news. As pepsionice points out, Gration must have tried to shake the tree and kept hearing no.
I’ve seen this too many times.
They do not hear it from 0-4 or 0-5s, who was the likely deliverer of the original news. As pepsionice points out, Gration must have tried to shake the tree and kept hearing no.
I’ve seen this too many times.
100% Agree
Received an email yesterday from someone voting for McCain
“I hate McCain, but I love my country more”
All who claim they refuse to vote because McCain’s not conservative enough or they want to teach the republicans a lesson or they are tired of choosing between the lesser of two evils. Please reconsider. It is that Important. Obama is dangerous to America and our freedoms. Obama is dangerous to the world.
Let me repeat then. The only people who will vote for this guy are:
1. Mostly uneducated minorities...
2. Mostly uneducated whites...
3. Left wing liberals and other kooks.
4. Socialists and communists...
5. Globalists.
6. Fans of Keith Olberweis and Chrisie Matthews
7. And generally the untalented hollywood crowd in need of work
Happy now?
ROFL! But there is a more inclusive description that covers 1 - 7:
“delusional morons”
That doesn’t have the detail and nuance of your 1 - 7, of course, but it does pretty much capture the attributes they all have in common. :^)
Worse, the higher the level of education the more likely that someone will vote for this idiot. One has to suppose it has to do with the completely unopposed indoctrination that Colleges and Universities have been accomplishing without any serious opposition for the last 30 years.
I don’t think conservatives with an education will vote for Obama. The college left wing elite, yes I agree with you, will vote for this guy.
He says that Iraq was of no strategic importance to us. What a stupid statement.
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