Running from the troops

Jonathon Martin:

Republicans are, smartly, seizing upon this report from Der Spiegel (which has become a must-read this week):

SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that Obama has cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The visits were planned for Friday. "Barack Obama will not be coming to us," a spokesperson for the US military hospital in Landstuhl announced. "I don't know why." Shortly before the same spokeswoman had announced a planned visit by Obama.

The optics here are not good: Obama has time to get in a workout and give a speech to a crowd mostly comprised of Europeans, but can't be bothered to visit American troops wounded in action recovering at a military hospital.

Obama's explanation strikes at much of the criticism he's gotten from McCain and the GOP.

"The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign," explains spokesman Robert Gibbs.

This is a sticky wicket for Obama.

...
Not only is this dumb politics, it is a mistake on a personal level. Visiting with our wounded troops is not the downer that liberals like Obama perceive. Most people I have read about in these visits come away uplifted by the experience. Perhaps Obama is afraid he will hear these guys asking him to let them finish the mission in Iraq.

There have also been reports from troops in the theater that they were ignored by Obama. This guy just does not seem to know anything about leadership.

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