Monday, July 28, 2008

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.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not altogether clear why St. Obama passed on the chance to visit wounded troops in Landstuhl. He may have been overly cautious about having such a visit look political. I don't have enough evidence upon which to arrive at any conclusions. As far as the rest of the controversial issues are concerned, we only know for certain that one email(the infamous "54") was incorrect/inappropriate. The report contained in this thread should be viewed with scepticism until verification is possible. St. Obama has feet of clay in so many areas, let's not get carried away. He's a political "target-rich environment."
Tarheel Hawkeye

JWM said...

To TH,

Obama could have visited the wounded without press and everyone would have understood and respected that.

And he knows that.

Also, in my experience the military goes out of its way to avoid public spatzs with VIPs.

That the mil would say he knew he was welcome but not the press is telling.

IMO he made a very poor decision.

You're bang on about other issues he's weak on.

The FISA flip-flop comes to mind.

The whole 20 years in Wright's church has still not been addressed.

For example, even if you buy the "I never heard the sermons" excuse there are the "Didn't Michelle tell you?" and "Didn't anyone else in the church tell you?" questions.

Best,

John

Anonymous said...

John,

Very good post and comment.

Retired Army

Anonymous said...

John: Very good points. I have since researched and found the Defense Department statements which confirm that St. Obama was, indeed, invited to visit Landstuhl but cameras and political hangers-on were not permitted. So it seems that St. Obama made a calculated decision NOT to visit wounded/injured servicemembers at the hospital.
We still don't have verification of the second email about St. Obama dissing the troops in Afghanistan, or the reports that many troops avoided meeting the candidate. Moreover, the latest USA Today/Gallup poll of likely voters shows McCain with a three-point lead nationwide; St. Obama didn't get much "bounce" regardless of what was reported. I hope people are beginning to look closely at the man because there isn't much substance there IMHO. My Texas friends would describe him as "all hat and no cattle."
Tarheel Hawkeye