First, the bogus McCain-54 email. Now, another email's questioned.

This afternoon Bill Dupray linked me to his The Patriot Room blog post describing “an email from an 23 year veteran and an ‘impeccable source’ about Senator Obama’s visit to a base in a combat zone[.]” Bill said the [email author’s name was] “redacted to prevent identity.”

I hope you’ll read Bill’s post, its thread and posts by Blackfive and Confederate Yankee which directly address the contents of the email Bill called to my attention.

Please also read the threads of the three posts. They "advance the story."

All three bloggers' posts concern the same email describing lack of access troops had to Sen. Barack Obama and his availability and/or willingness to meet with them during his recent visits to Afghanistan or Iraq. (The email doesn't explicitly say which country, but as you'll see when reading the posts, it's now agreed the country is Afghanistan. - - JinC)

Regarding the very important matters Patriot Room, Blackfive and Confederate Yankee report and discuss, I’ve two thoughts to share tonight, with perhaps more to follow tomorrow:

1) View this post ( Andrea Mitchell blasts staged Obama events ) which includes a video of NBC’s Andrea Mitchell telling the public that Obama’s visits to military sites were “staged.”

2) As for the parts of the three bloggrs' posts reporting Obama only meet with military personnel from his home state:

If you wondered how that could happen, I'm betting you were never in the military.

Those who were know that when a congressional VIP asks to visit with personnel “from home,” the U. S. military is mighty accommodating, to say the least.

For example, some of you Army vets reading this may have lost a 12-hour pass or been forced to cold shave after you came off the lines because “your Congressman is visiting at Division, Private, and you need to get your ass into Class A's. We got a jeep waiting for you.”

I'm told it works like that in the other services, too.

On the staging, I don't blame Obama out of hand because even if he'd said, "Turn me loose," America's military would have found a way to stage things.

Most of that would've been to protect Obama; a part would've been to PR.

Mind you, as JinC Regulars know, I've enormous respect for our military.

This Sunday I'll post some "Staging" posts explaining why, as I understand it, the U.S. military does staging.

Sometimes it's for the best of reasons, and sometimes it's for bad ones.

Back to Obama and the three bloggers:

Obama in Afghanistan and Iraq included a lot of staging; and we all owe Mitchell thanks for pointing that out.

I only wish more MSM folks had done the same as “loud and clear” as Mitchell.

Final thought:For thoughtful Americans the most revealing and therefore most important part of Sen. Obama's recent overseas trip was his decision to pass on a visit to wounded troops once he learned he couldn’t bring his staff and fawning media cadre with him into their hospital rooms and wards.