http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/obama-scrubs-vi.htmlObama Scrubs Visit to See Troops in Germany; Says “Inappropriate” Since Campaign Funding European Swing
July 24, 2008 1:38 PM
The German magazine Der Spiegel is reporting on line that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. has “cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl U.S. 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 U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl told Der Spiegel. “I don't know why.”
Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs told us in a statement, “During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Senator Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops. For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. 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.”
- jpt
UPDATE: The McCain campaign issued the following comment on Obama’s decision to cancel a visit to the troops at Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany today:
"Barack Obama is wrong. It is never ‘inappropriate’ to visit our men and women in the military," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.