Obama Explains Scrubbed Visit with Wounded Troops in Germany

ABC News ^ | Saturday, July 26, 2008 | Jake Tapper

[kristinn]

After meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, came before the microphones...

SNIP

But the Pentagon said that wasn't true, that Obama was more than welcome to come, it was just that he couldn't bring the media or campaign staff.

So here's what Obama said about it all:

"The staff was working this so I don’t know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened," Obama said. "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we left it off the schedule. We were treating it in the same way we treat a visit to Walter Reed which I was able to do a few weeks ago without any fanfare whatsoever. I was going to be accompanied by one of my advisors, a former military officer."

Continued Obama, "And we got notice that he would be treated as a campaign person, and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn’t on the Senate staff. That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political. And the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns."

"So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been considered a political controversy of some sort," Obama said, "what we decided was that we not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops that were there. So that essentially would be the extent of the story."

[Always Right]

Is this story #3 or story #4?

[Chode]

.....................!!!

[Loyal Buckeye]

B.S.

[avacado]

Quit blaming others Mr StutteringFool! You could have simply gone by yourself, Dumbo!

[Corin Stormhands]

Keep piling it up Barack.

The obvious question, why couldn’t he just tell Gration that he couldn’t go?

[RepublitarianRoger2]

That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political.

Uh, yeah, Barack. Everything you ever do is political. It's all political, of course -- nothing more. Including the visit to Walter Reed.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

There is a reasonable explanation - he could say he cared enough about the troops not to enrage them in their recuperative state by forcing them into an uncomfortable situation with a dangerous, lying, back-stabbing jagoff like himself.

[pnh102]

Yes we can?

[gov_bean_ counter]

Continued Obama, "And we got notice that he would be treated as a campaign person, and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn’t on the Senate staff. That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political. And the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns."

Why couldn't someone on his Senate staff replace the General?????

[capt. norm]

Well Obama certainly knows how to tap dance around this.

Would have used a Gregory Hines photo, but didn't want to be accused of being racist......Oh what the heck. Hines was also a great dancer:

[Piquaboy]

The lying SOS. If he could not make it a campaign event it was not worth the trouble for him,

[quark]

Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy had to hit the gym to do a few curls and all of 10 sit-ups...the jug-eared Marxist couldn't be bothered with visiting our wounded warriors.

[wayoverthehill]

He probably would have had to leave a trail of bread crumbs in order to find his way back if he had gone alone.

Yes, he IS that stupid!

[freespirited]

I used to consider him an excellent liar but this one is pathetic.

[Jemian]

[SumProVita]

He really doesn’t have to explain. Everyone with a half of a brain already KNOWS the truth.

[SandRat]

Now where did I put that jpg of Pinocch-e-O-bama?

[N. Theknow]

"The staff was working this so I don’t know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened,"

Hello Obama staffers. Welcome to the underside of the bus. Enjoy the view.

"That's not the staff I knew."

[mfnorman]

at least your two photos covers both his races