Obama Blows Off Troops Then Lies About It (25July08)

[darrels joy]

Obama Blows Off Troops Then Lies About It (25July08)


Busted: Obama Camp Slanders Military-- Blew Off Wounded Soldiers

Remember- what Barack Obama told the troops in Afghanisan?

"This Is My Favorite Thing To Do."

Fast forward Berlin--

After the outrage yesterday that Barack Obama had decided to blow off a visit to see the wounded troops during his campaign stop in Berlin, the Obama Camp tried to lay blame on the US military.

They told reporters this morning that the military "prevented" Obama from seeing the wounded soldiers.

(It happens all of the time!)

Lynn Sweet at The Chicago Sun-Times reported:

Though the Rammstein visit had been planned for days, Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said that that Pentagon notified Obama military advisor Scott Gration only yesterday or the day before that he should not come.

The Pentagon "viewed this as a campaign event and therefore they said he should not come," Axelrod said.

Obama has been at military bases in previous overseas trips.

He visited with troops--even played basketball--when he touched down in Kuwait during the Iraq and Afghanistan leg of his swing.

However, the Pentagon has come out with a different version on the story.

The Politico reported:

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.

"It's bad enough that Obama went shopping and worked out instead of visiting wounded troops.

It's worse that his campaign lied about it.

UPDATE: The Pentagon confirmed that it told Obama to leave his photo staff back in Berlin.

posted by Gateway Pundit at 7/25/2008 12:07:00 PM

[SuperScout]

Ah, yes, the Audacity of Hopelessness rides again! And rather than honor the troops who may have been in the hospital, the Young Gutless Wonder put his tail between his legs and rides off to another fawning spit-fest.

[darrels joy]

Obama's casual way with the truth

Thomas Lifson
Barack Obama gave us more than some magnificent photo-ops when he spoke in Berlin yesterday. By trying to look presidential, he revealed more then he intended to about his operating style - long on glossy production values, and painfully inadequate when it comes to getting the facts straight.


Twice in the course of generating the almost poetic images which mark his rhetoric, Senator Obama spoke to the assembled throng and the world's media about matters at variance with reality. This was a prepared speech, read from a teleprompter. The candidate and his staff knew the speech was going to be important, attracting the biggest crowd of his career. Moreover, the candidate boasts that he has 300 foreign policy advisors, who should be capable of fact checking the candidate's most visible oration yet.



Obama, speaking to Berliners, used the familiar cloudy and cold Berlin winter weather to evoke a response of sympathy and unity with America (at least America of the Berlin Airlift era) when he said,

"The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold."

There's nothing like shared sacrifice in the past to generate warm feelings. Even young Berliners who weren't born then experience Berlin's dreary winters. Very artful speechwriting.


But Obama didn't know what he was talking about when it comes to the actual military operation of the Berlin Airlift. He was dead wrong about "many planes ... forced to trun back," as historian D.M. Giangreco pointed out yesterday in American Thinker.

"Obama should have read my

before making his claim about the Berlin Airlift. Barely a handful of the nearly 28,000 flights "turned back" in the face in the cruel winter of 1948-1949.

"Obama obviously has limited knowledge of the Airlift, and automatically assumes that the USAF would send up aircraft in prohibitively dangerous weather (it didn't) and that, once up, large numbers of pilots aborted their missions."

A candidate for commander-in-chief hereby parades his deep misunderstanding about the way the United States Air Force regards human life. Is this how he would treat Airmen and Airwomen when he is in command? This should raise alarm bells among those who value the lives of our military men and women.


I find it unnerving that Obama is so out of touch with the realities of military operations and history. But even more unsettling is the habit of mind revealed here: the assumption that he knows everything already, so there is no need to sweat the details. He apparently is ignorant of the existence of what Donald Rumsfeld called the "unknown unknowns."


The second fictional imagery employed by Obama is even more troubling. Neither the man nor his 300 advisors apparently have bothered to learn about the facts on the ground in Northern Ireland.

"Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together;"

David Singh today pointed out for our readers that as recently as May 3, USA Today, a widely-read news source not known as a purveyor of esoteric knowledge, published an article revealing:

"Ten years after peace was declared in Northern Ireland, one might have expected that Belfast's barriers would be torn down by now. But reality, as usual, is far messier. Not one has been dismantled. Instead they've grown in both size and number."

A president of the United States needs to know the basic facts. This is far worse than Gerald Ford's reference to Poland as a free country during the Iron Curtain days. Obama and his advisors share a mentality that assumes an omnipotence unjustified by his abilities.


Senator Obama is on his way to becoming a laughingstock. If he were a Republican, he would be ridiculed mercilessly for these verbal bungles in the world spotlight.

Thomas Lifson is editor and publisher of American Thinker.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...h_the_tru.html
__________________________________________________ _________
And rather than answer to the mistakes of their candidate, some here will attack McCain.
Joy

[Gimpy]

Email from the Republican Slime Machine proves to be just another lie!

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactchec...ghanistan.html



Gimp

[darrels joy]

Yep. Change the subject again. Can't defend the indefensable so attack elsewhere.

Hospital Doctor Slams Obama, Canceled Visit

Thursday, July 31, 2008 3:07 PM Article Font Size

The McCain campaign issued the following statement today: Today, Dr. Danny Jazarevic, who served as the Chief of Trauma, Critical Care and Vascular Surgery at Landstuhl, issued the following statement on Barack Obama's canceled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl: "Last week, Senator Obama skipped a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the Pentagon would not allow campaign staff or media to accompany him into the hospital. I served as director of trauma surgery at that hospital for nearly four years and saw the effect that a visit from a celebrity like Senator Obama could have on morale. During that time, I do not recall a single member of Congress canceling a visit with the troops despite being just a few hours away, but Senator Obama seems to have been more concerned with how the visit would affect him than how it would affect the soldiers recovering from wounds received in the service of their country." Dr. Danny Jazarevic served as the Chief of Trauma, Critical Care and Vascular Surgery at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. In 1984, Dr. Jazarevic joined the United States Army and later the Florida National Guard. He has since served in Honduras, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, and Iraq. From December 2002 through January 2006, Dr. Jazarevic was assigned to the U.S. Army Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, where he served as Chief of Trauma, Critical Care and Vascular Surgery. During this period, he deployed to Iraq numerous times, including with the 101st Airborne Division Forward Surgical Team and as Director of Operations for the 44th U.S. Army Medical Command. He is currently the Chief Trauma Surgeon at a civilian medical center in Florida, and also serves as a full Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Dr. Jazarevic has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

[Gimpy]

Originally Posted by darrels joy

Yep. Change the subject again. Can't defend the indefensable so attack elsewhere.

[reconeil]

Yeah,...that's right. Let's all believe typically forked-tongue Gimpy and whatever other
Barack Hussein Obama Jr. cockamamie favorable article he comes up with,.............
INSTEAD of multitude of News Reports about The Quite Suspect of Background & Intent One.

Besides, how come the: "I pray to Jesus every night" Madrassa School Graduate turncoat
defecting from Islam, isn't on EVEN ONLY ONE Radical Muslim Mullah's: "Hit List" or Fatwah?
Such tells me that Obama is about as much a Christian as his tight friend, confidant & political
advisor, Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan is.

In that context, it's unarguable that both Barack, Gimpy & such Dem Hacks are alway QUITE
DESPICABLY SIMILAR & UNBELIEVABLE PHONIES (at best).
At worst,...such types normally & typically act as Enemy Helpful Fools?

Neil

[Gimpy]

your BOTH full of $hit!


The following is an open letter from North Carolina veterans to John McCain.:

###START###


As Americans and North Carolina veterans, we are disappointed in your treatment of Senator Barack Obama and his visit to our troops while in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Iraq. You may differ with Senator Obama on the strategy in Iraq, but we should be united in support for our brave troops and their fight to protect this nation. When you attempt to distort Senator Obama's actions – at a time when we face enormous challenges abroad – you do not honor your promise to run a civil campaign. While we respect your service to our country, we cannot stand by while you falsely attack Senator Obama.

Your campaign knew that Senator Obama planned to visit Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany but he did not want the trip to be perceived as a campaign appearance. By using false advertising and television interviews to question Senator Obama's motives, your campaign accomplished exactly what he sought to avoid and what you yourself had previously warned against; doing a disservice to those who fought by playing politics with their service. These false accusations do not honor our troops – it demeans the debate in this campaign.

Your attempt to sully Senator Obama's intentions is particularly discouraging because your own record on veterans does not measure up to his. While Obama consistently voted to provide funding and badly needed equipment for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, you voted to authorize President Bush to send troops into combat without adequate vehicle and body armor. Senator Obama supported the 21st Century GI Bill from the beginning - giving every returning veteran a real chance to go to college. You opposed it when your support was really needed. Senator Obama voted for increased funding for military and veterans hospitals when a $1.2 billion shortfall was identified. You did not. Senator Obama introduced legislation to improve the disgraceful conditions at some of our military hospitals, but your support of wounded veterans has so neglected their needs, the Disabled American Veterans consistently rank your record at below 50%.

Senator Obama knows that support for troops fighting today must continue when they become veterans returning to the country they served. He visited American troops last week to express his deep gratitude for their dedication – a gratitude he makes good on with his support of veterans here at home. We ask that you put an end to these attacks and conduct the honest and honorable campaign you promised the American people.

Glen D. Howard
US Army Veteran
Fayetteville, NC

Martin A. Dyckman
US Army Veteran
Waynesville, NC

Grier Martin
US Army Veteran
Raleigh, NC

Rodger Koopman
USAF Veteran
Raleigh, NC

Michael L. Buie. ET1(SS)
US Navy Veteran
Garner, NC

Valencia "Val" Applewhite
USAF Veteran
Fayetteville, NC

Catherine M. Bowen
USAF Veteran
Durham, NC

Russell T. Bowen
USAF Veteran
Durham, NC


###END###


Gimp

[reconeil]

Regarding: "Disappointed in your (re. McCain) treatment of Barack Obama (actually Barack
Hussein Obama Jr.)" letter by 8 Veterans,...just what-the-hell: "Treatment" are you
Wartime Undermining & Muslim Enemy Favoring Phonies talking about?

Besides Oh Devout: "Recapture The White House AT ANY COST TO AMERICA" Political
Supremacist, ONLY 8 duped Veterans marching to The Leftist Party Line pales in comparison
to the multitude of Vets (Military Personnel also) whom wouldn't vote for an ACLU, DNC, UN,
European & Middle Eastern MUCH PREFERRED U.S. Presidential Candidate,...............
IN A MILLION YEARS!!!

Regardless,Thank God for our Secret Ballot System since such negates all the constant
daily pressures of going along with herd, as usually produced by the typical: "Attack Dog"
Dems,...day in & day out & year after year.

Also, let's hope that the many obvious new Illegal Votes by: "Criminally Illegal Aliens" are
curtailed (actually caught, prosecuted, fined & deported), or at least kept to a minimum.
It' bad enough for Rich Dems & Billionaires to buy The Presidency for Obama. But, Mexican
& Central American Voters helping Barack capture The Brass Ring of Power & Control over
ALL WE Americans,....are even more despicable.

You illegals can pick all tomatoes or whatever you like. But don't stick ME/US with
Barack Hussein Obama Jr. Already got stuck TWICE with worse possible & inept Commander-In-Chief Bill Clinton,...thanks to Perot.

Besides,...Americans having to suffer such ineptness AGAIN (especially during wartime)
would no doubt be much worse than mere: "Cruel & Unusual Punishment", anyway.

Neil

[exlrrp]

Originally Posted by Gimpy

Change the "subject"???????????????????

Hell.... the very first line in your original post says "Obama blows off troops", didn't it?

What I posted proves this is NOT the case.

This just goes to prove that the Republican "slime machine" will go to every length to try and make it appear Obama does not care about our "troops".......Which, as anyone with an IQ higher than rutbaga knows very well that's NOT the case.

Hell even the lead line in your last post "Hospital Doctor Slams Obama, Canceled Visit:" is a damn LIE...........This guy was NOT a "hospital doctor" when Obama even visited Germany, he is "former" Chief of Trauma who served from 2002 thru 2006!

He was nowhere even NEAR the "hospital" when Obama was there, he's just another whack job the McCain campaign has hired to put out their negative bull$hit about Obama.

And, you're one to be talking about "Can't defend the indefensable so attack elsewhere"?.........Why the hell haven't YOU attempted to "defend" McCains piss-poor record of voting against military veterans legislation that I've posted for everyone to REALLY SEE how his "support of our troops" pales in comparison with Obamas NINETY-TWO PERCENT (92%) favorable record of voting on these very same measures???

Because you know damn well.........McCain has NO EXCUSE for his miserable record.....that's why!

Gimp

here it all is right here, Gimp. As usual, the craven repuglican liars have made up a brand new story. but the Washingot Post has it all right here on the front page:

McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence

By Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 30, 2008; A01



For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, --->despite no evidence that the charge is true.<--- {emphasis mine}

The attacks are part of a newly aggressive McCain operation whose aim is to portray the Democratic presidential candidate as a craven politician more interested in his image than in ailing soldiers, a senior McCain adviser said. They come despite repeated pledges by the Republican that he will never question his rival's patriotism.

The essence of McCain's allegation is that Obama planned to take a media entourage, including television cameras, to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his week-long foreign trip, and that he canceled the visit when he learned he could not do so. "I know that, according to reports, that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers," McCain said Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

The Obama campaign has denied that was the reason he called off the visit. In fact, there is no evidence that he planned to take anyone to the American hospital other than a military adviser, whose status as a campaign staff member sparked last-minute concern among Pentagon officials that the visit would be an improper political event.

"Absolutely, unequivocally wrong," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in an e-mail after McCain's comments to Larry King.

Despite serious and repeated queries about the charge over several days, McCain and his allies continued yesterday to question Obama's patriotism by focusing attention on the canceled hospital visit.

McCain's campaign released a statement from retired Sgt. Maj. Craig Layton, who worked as a commander at the hospital, who said: "If Senator Obama isn't comfortable meeting wounded American troops without his entourage, perhaps he does not have the experience necessary to serve as commander in chief."

McCain's advisers said they do not intend to back down from the charge, believing it an effective way to create a "narrative" about what they say is Obama's indifference toward the military.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said again yesterday that the Republican's version of events is correct, and that Obama canceled the visit because he was not allowed to take reporters and cameras into the hospital.

"It is safe to say that, according to press reports, Barack Obama avoided, skipped, canceled the visit because of those reasons," he said. "We're not making a leap here."

Asked repeatedly for the "reports," Bounds provided three examples, none of which alleged that Obama had wanted to take members of the media to the hospital.

The McCain campaign has produced a television commercial that says that while in Germany, Obama "made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras." The commercial shows Obama shooting a basketball -- an event that happened earlier in the trip on a stopover in Kuwait, where the Democrat spoke to troops in a gym before grabbing a ball and taking a single shot. The military released the video footage.

A reconstruction of the circumstances surrounding Obama's decision not to visit Landstuhl, based on firsthand reporting from the trip, shows that his campaign never contemplated taking the media with him.

The first indication reporters got that Obama was planning, or had planned, to visit the hospital came last Thursday morning, shortly after the entourage arrived in Berlin. On the seats of the media bus were schedules for his stop in Germany and the final entry -- a Friday-morning departure -- indicated that the senator's plane would fly from Berlin to Ramstein Air Base.

When a reporter asked spokeswoman Linda Douglass that morning about the trip to Ramstein, she said that the trip had been considered but that Obama was not going to go. At that point, the campaign provided no other information.

Later that night, after Obama gave a speech in Berlin, a campaign source spoke about the canceled stop on the condition of anonymity. The official said that the trip was canceled after the Pentagon informed a campaign official that the visit would be considered a campaign event.

Overnight, the Obama team issued two statements, one from senior campaign official Robert Gibbs and the other from retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, an Obama foreign policy adviser who was on the trip.

Gibbs's statement said the hospital visit, which had been on the internal schedule for several weeks, was canceled because Obama decided it would be inappropriate to go there as part of a trip paid for by his campaign. Gration said the Pentagon had told the campaign that the visit would be seen as a political trip.

Those two statements, while not inconsistent, did not clarify whether the visit was canceled in reaction to Pentagon concerns or because of worries about appearances. They also opened Obama's camp to charges that it was offering slightly different reasons at different times.

Gibbs said yesterday that the campaign had planned to inform the traveling media members sometime on the morning of the flight to Ramstein that Obama was intending to visit the hospital but had made no plans to take reporters, including even the small, protective press pool that now accompanies him most places.

Reporters, he said, probably would have been able to get off the plane but not leave an air base facility close by. "We had made absolutely no arrangements to transport the press to the hospital," he said.

On Friday afternoon, en route from Berlin to Paris, Gibbs briefed reporters traveling with Obama. He noted that the candidate had visited wounded soldiers several weeks earlier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District and at a combat support hospital while in Iraq earlier in the week -- both times without reporters.

At one point, a reporter asked, "Why not just say it is never inappropriate to visit men and women in service?" -- a key McCain charge -- "What is your response to that?"

Gibbs replied: "It is entirely likely that someone would have attacked us for having gone. And it is entirely likely -- and it has come about -- that people have attacked us for not going."

On Saturday in London, Obama addressed the controversy during a news conference. He said Pentagon concerns about Gration's status triggered the decision not to visit Landstuhl.

"We got notice that [Gration] 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," Obama said. "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."

Obama's explanation, which came after more than a day of controversy, was the clearest in noting that it was Pentagon concerns about Gration accompanying him to the hospital that forced Obama to reconsider and, ultimately, cancel the visit.

Gibbs was asked yesterday about the continuing allegations from McCain that the real reason was a desire to bring a media entourage to the hospital.

"That's completely untrue, and I think, honestly, they know it's untrue," Gibbs said.


So there you go: completely untrue and they KNOW its untrue! The repuglicans just can't help lying, its part of their "ethics"
Stay good, Gimp
James