Jul 25 2008
Obama’s Unforgivable Stumble In Germany
While Obama was doing the “We Are The World” crap (we all remember the duplicitous French regarding Iraq and the fact many NATO forces are not actually allowed to fight in our war to protect the West from terrorism) Obama’s greatest stumble and insult was not in visiting our wounded troops in Germany:
Chief Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed to Politico that Department of Defense officials cautioned Barack Obama’s campaign that his planned visit to wounded American troops in Germany could not be political in nature and that he would be barred from bringing along campaign staff and reporters.  He also said that Cindy McCain recently requested to visit sailors aboard the U.S.N.S. Comfort and was denied.
“Sen. Obama is welcome to visit Landstuhl or any military hospital in his official capacity as a United States senator,” Morrell said in a brief interview. “But there is a DOD policy which governs campaigning and electioneering at military facilities that would have to be respected if he were to visit. That distinction was relayed and made clear to campaign, and they made a decision on their own based on that guidance.”
Morrell, in a subsequent interview, added that military officials told Obama he could only visit the military facility with his Secret Service detail and Senate staff.
This is just unforgivable. Obama had the opportunity to go visit those American who have given a part of themselves to America, and because he couldn’t turn it into a media circus he bowed out. American troops are not PR props Senator. They sacrificed for this country, why could you not sacrifice a few minutes of air time to quietly and respectfully go meet with them?Â
How hard would it have been to visit them and give them a thank you no matter what the restrictions? How hard would it have been to simply honor and respect their sacrifices? Not hard at all in reality. You don’t have to agree with the policies to thank those who volunteered and took their orders to implement those policies. I cannot fathom what was going through Obama’s thick head. These American troops are “The World” too.
This incident shows Obama to be weak and self absorbed. He was confounded by a simple requirement which required the visit to be for the benefit of the wounded, not to the one visiting the troops. If he can’t work through this simple challenge he has no hope of running America. Clearly, the Obama campaign could not be bothered with going through the necessary hoops to visit the troops. When it became tough they quit and walked away.
Senator, you are no leader of America. Run for President of Europe- which I must note hosts the most nationalistic ‘tribes’ you will find on the planet, and who are not people of the World but Frenchman, Germans, Greeks, etc first. See if any of these white anglo-saxon countries of the world would ever elect someone as their leader who has ancestors tracing back to Africa. They applauded you as a puppet, and you lapped it up. Then you turned your back on those Americans who have given more to this country than you could ever hope to give.
Smooth move, Barry.
Good post AJ the man is vacuous and lacks anything close to gravitas.
How dare you criticize the Messiah!
[…] has more. While AJ Strata rakes Obama over the coals: How hard would it have been to visit them and give them a thank you no […]
I wouldn’t have put it that strongly AJ, but I’d like to mention that Senator Obama’s pride is going to be his undoing before too long if he keeps trying to make himself look strong by defying the local customs and now by defying the ancient universal custom (or honour) of respecting the people who deserve respect most of all.
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Eventually more people will start joining the dots and see that all he really cares about is looking strong – and theoretically “good presidential material” so he can win the election, but there’s a bit more to being a President than that.
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Geez, the French President, a few years ago was already IN OFFICE when he and his party picked up an ex-American soldier from WWII (I think) who was waiting for a bus on the street and drove him to the big commemoration ceremony that he had travelled to attend.
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It may have been set-up, but who cares – the French President did it. So if he could do something like thanking a guy for helping to save France, and giving him a ride in a limo, then surely someone in Obama’s current position shouldn’t even have to THINK about visiting his ‘own’ injured military people.
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It might be a different story if they didn’t know who the hell Obama was, but most of them would have appreciated the visit even if they had no interest in his political party.
Ray
This incident shows Obama to be weak and self absorbed.
And also dumb. There were near zero votes among the throng standing before him during his speech, and gobs of them on our bases in Germany, not to mention the relatives of the military back home.
He was just being himself, showing his true values and standards. He hates the American military and everything they stand for, he was just letting them know it clearly.
and you did need to say it that strongly.
Axelrod knows the drill, he didn’t just come down in the last rain shower. When you vote to cut off a guys funding, maybe it’s hard to say hi, how’s it going!
Hey AJ,
It looks like you might have got the wrong end of the pineapple about this guy. 🙂
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“And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. […]
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[See article – Times Online]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece
Narcissistic.
Supporting Obama is the fashion right now among the “hipsters”. Once it becomes socially “ok” to criticize him, his support will melt like a stick of butter in Gerlach on Labor Day.
He peaked too soon, by the time election day comes, he will be “so 5 minutes ago”. It’s just empty rhetoric by a politician whose only claim to fame in national politics is being a one-term US Senator.
I am already starting to hear the cracks appearing in talk from people in the San Francisco Bay area.
The song goes kinda like this: Obama runs for office. It becomes the “counter-culture” thing to do to support him. It means you are one of the Kewl Kidz. Then everyone else wants to be like the Kewl Kidz and jump on the bandwagon. Then it isn’t so Kewl anymore to be with the mainstream … so the Kewl Kidz jump ship and maybe support Hillary or if they want to be REALLY daring, find a way to rationalize how one can be for McCain since he isn’t really all that “Republican”. And that is the point where Obama’s artificial horizon indicator begins to read negative.
I thought he was not getting a bounce, but the tracking polls at Rasmussens and Gallup show him about 5 points, he was close to a tie.
Of course those are tracking polls and they change day to day.
In fact it was not until late May and early June that Obama was even catching up to McCain in those kind of polls. That was just a few weeks ago. There are still more than 4 months before the elections, who knows what will happen between now and then?
I also read that the crowd in Germany was only about 20,000 people according to the government. If true, that means the media lied about the size of the crowd.
This is a good sign:
The electoral vote race is tightening up. Popular vote points nationally don’t matter. It is races by state with the electoral votes added up that matters.
Also, there are about twice as many “undecided” voters that are leaning toward neither candidate at the moment as there were this time 2004.
I dont believe Obama will last through Novemeber. He’s already exhausted and the campaign really has yet to begin.
I’m not clear on waht the good sign is.
The good sign is that it is now “Obama 273”. Last week he was in the 290’s. He has lost about 20 electoral votes in the past week.
The report about the soldiers might hurt him too…it should. And that is just really getting out there in the last day or so. That would not show up in the daily tracking polls until early next week. I don’t know, I guess time will tell.
[…] has more. While AJ Strata rakes Obama over the coals: How hard would it have been to visit them and give them a thank you no […]
“The report about the soldiers might hurt him too”
I doubt it because 90% of Americans will never hear about it. The networks won’t report anything about it. There won’t be anything about it on the network radio news. The only people who will hear about it are people who are already not voting for Obama and listening to conservative talk radio or reading political blogs leaning to the right. And those outlets are preaching to the choir, not talking to the public at large.
Can anyone point me to the latest polls showing the percentage of the US soldiers favoring Obama versus McCain?
Thanks!