What political operatives spend their time thinking about:
Obama is in Germany. If he visits wounded US soldiers at the Army's Landstuhl medical center, he can be accused of using them as props for politics. If he doesn't, he can be accused of not caring about them as much as adoring crowds in Berlin.
What do you do?
Obama scheduled a visit, then apparently changed his mind and did not visit Landstuhl.
The RNC blasts out a story from Spiegel noting the shift, and an item from the Chicago Tribune's blog: "A Republican friend of the Swamp helpfully points out that Sen. Barack Obama seems to have time to visit the gym for a workout today, but not to visit the troops during his stay in Germany tomorrow."
The Obama campaign issues 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."
McCain response: “Barack Obama is wrong. It is never ‘inappropriate’ to visit our men and women in the military.”
Right call, or wrong call?