Reply #16: The "visit the troops" thing (Landstuhl) was a total setup by the GOP on Obama.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

It was collusion between Rove/Bush Administration and McCain's campaign. It's completely transparent, and completely disgusting.

The event for Obama had been known, scheduled and arranged for weeks.

Obama's people suddenly get a call from a Pentagon rep the DAY before it's scheduled saying that Obama can't bring any of his campaign people, only Senate staff, otherwise it's a campaign event which is not allowed on military bases. (Can you imagine the logistics involved with something like this with either major candidate? No way is it going to happen with him just taking a cab there without any of his people. He did the right thing under the circumstances. Also I don't trust these rat fuckers with his safety when they are losing so badly, even at a military hospital.)

There is INSTANTLY a firestorm of pre-manufactured GOP outrage in the Right Wing media, talk radio etc., about him not going including an ad from the McCain people.

You do the math. The conclusion is pretty obvious to me.

Obama needs to learn a good lesson from this that the GOP will stop at nothing, and will use Bush's control over the military to work him over with "gotcha" moments such as this to fuck him over any way they can. He needs to be very wary about events on military bases and consider the possibility of this kind of setup. He's smart and knows this but just got set up good this time. I don't think the damage will be too bad. It's too obvious that the talking point of "Obama's too good to spend time with the troops" is bogus, considering the time he spent with them in Afghanistan, complete with all kinds of positive images, which no doubt enraged the Bush and McCain people.

When you consider this in context of Condi telling State Dept. people abroad not to help Obama, and U.S. Embassy people in Germany not being allowed to attend the Berlin speech while the U.S. Ambassador to Canada himself went to McCain's speech in Canada, also very much a campaign event, it's pretty clear that McCain and Bush will harness the full machinery of federal government to try and help him win.

There are several very good DU threads on the Landstuhl (U.S. military hospital in Germany) incident, search and read them.

It's more than a sentence or two, but there you have it.