Venomous Kate has posted an email from a soldier stationed in Afghanistan that presents a somewhat different account of Sen. Barack Obama’s visit to Bagram than you might have heard from the press. Here’s a snippet:
He got off the plan[e] and got into a bullet proof vehicle, got to the area to meet with the Major General (2 Star) who is the commander here at Bagram. As the Soldiers were lined up to shake his hand he blew them off and didn’t say a word as he went into the conference room to meet the General.
It’s hard to excerpt so read the whole thing.
When read in combination with Sen. Obama’s reluctance to visit wounded soldiers in Landstuhl unless it could be turned into a campaign event, it appears to be something of a pattern. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
Update
Apparently, there’s some controversy about the story linked to above. Snopes is currently listing it as false and has a contradicting quotation on its web site:
I don’t know who this captain saw, but it wasn’t the Barack Obama *I* just saw in Afghanistan. Unlike most of the pols who breeze on through for nothing more than brief photo ops before leaving he was warm, friendly & engaging (as much as security would allow) with the troops he met and he was genuinely interested in us and our mission and how we could best serve our country.
So, true? False? Beats me. Even if I can’t stand behind the story I’ll stand by my title: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
{ 18 comments }
Well, it really isn’t his military he’s dissing. He’s a "citizen of the world" don’t ya know.
Barack "I’m not a typical politician" Obama continues to act like the typical slippery weasel of a politician that we see every day in Washington. Hey, if it can’t be a campaign event why should he be bothered? It’s more important to press the flesh of European and Middle Eastern leaders so he can win their votes, right?
Unfortunately, Snopes says that email is wrong.
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I went to the Venomous Kate link, and the story has been pulled. It seems Snopes did some investigating, and the email is a hoax.
Dave,
I had heard that his cancelling of meeting with wounded troops in Germany was at the Army’s request, not based on his own reluctance.
Even though I figure Obama’s an empty suit and corrupt Chicago pol who would be a complete clusterfarg as President, this behavior would be completely out of character for any politician with an audience, so I’m inclined to agree the email’s fake.
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The story on its face is not credible. There’s no reason on earth Obama would have acted that way. He didn’t get where he is by doing so.
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Im also disappointed to see you take the Landstuhl thing seriously, Dave. Obama canceled the trip because the Pentagon informed him that it would be innapropriate.
"We have longstanding Department of Defense policy in regards to political campaigns and elections," Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner told me. "We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff." After being told this, the Obama campaign announced yesterday that it had decided it was "inappropriate" to make the visit as part of a campaign trip.
"Hey, if it can’t be a campaign event why should he be bothered?"
If this is the sort of thing you’re going to go in for, maybe you should stop pretending your opinions are based on evidence, rather than the other way around.
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Aziz, that still reflects poorly on Senator Obama’s thinking. Imagine if instead the story went like this:
We have longstanding Department of Defense policy in regards to political campaigns and elections," Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner told me. "We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff." After being told this, Senator Obama elected to send his campaign staff on to their next stop, while he and his Senate staff met with the soldiers.
The DoD didn’t say, "Please don’t visit." They said, "Please don’t campaign." It was Senator Obama who decided, "Well, then, I guess I can’t go."
I know a campaign is a busy time, and a candidate’s minutes — heck, even seconds — must be carefully allocated. But this time, the Senator blew it. He loaded the gun and handed it to his opposition, and is now complaining that the gun wasn’t supposed to be loaded.
Senator Obama elected to send his campaign staff on to their next stop, while he and his Senate staff met with the soldiers.
I’m afraid I don’t understand what is proven one way or another by highlighting a clause within an entirely fabricated quote (and I should know, since I’m the one who fabricated it).
Just in case it wasn’t clear: the italicized paragraph in my post was fabricated by me to demonstrate a point. It was not a quote from any news source. Most of it was exactly the quote Aziz cited; but the final sentence was entirely fabricated by myself. It never happened (though if Senator Obama were smart, it would have).
Martin,
isn’t it also possible that since Obama was in Germany entirely as a campaign stop that he decided to honor both the letter and spirit of the DoD’s request? Namely that even appearing with only senate staff (assuming they were even on the trip with him) would still constitute a de facto campaign event and Obama made a (gasp!) moral decision over a political one?
Martin, I may be guilty of not extending McCain beneft of the doubt as often as I should, but I do try (and am willing to be called on it should I fall short). I hope you can extend the same effort to Obama. It should be noted that Obama did in fact visit injured troops at Walter Reed and at the hospital in Baghdad, but these visits were him and his security detail alone, in secrecy, and there were no press reports about it until after the fact. Given that Obama was on the biggest most publicized worldwide tour ever, and Germany is not the Green Zone where politicians can sneak in and out relatively free from media spotlight, doing the same thing at Lundstahl was essentially impossible.
At any rate, read the transcript of the media session where obama’s rep answers detailed questions from the press about the entire affair. I found it satisfying of course but i think that even a reasonable critic of Obama should also find little to quibble here.
Sounds like Martin and Dean buy the basic National Review take on the incident: "Ok fine, it’s dishonest smear, but it’s such a good one: how can we resist?" Â
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Sounds like Bad has a reading comprehension problem, or perhaps just an honesty problem of his own. Show me where I or Dean said anything like that.
Oh good grief, you both bought into the same campaign glurge, hook line and sinker, all based on an overeagerness to buy into whatever happens to fit your little narrative.Â
Coleman, at least, had the sense to see right through it.Â
Here’s Dean: "Hey, if it can’t be a campaign event why should he be bothered?"
The narrative on Obama is now that he’s really full of himself. But seriously no politician can hold a candle to the sort of self-righteous BS you guys are now indulging in.
Â
Bad’s last blog post..Church Killer Adkisson’s Reading List: O?Reily, Hannity, Savage
In other words: no, you can’t cite an example, so you’re just going to be belligerent to cover it up.
Thank you. I can safely ignore your comments in the future.
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