If you’ve watched TV in America at all this weekend, you’ve seen or heard about this ad. I don’t know whether to be more astonished that the McCain campaign would actually make such an absurd attack, or that it’s getting so much attention in the media. Seriously, people, it’s one cancelled visit, and it was cancelled for good reason. And the reason was not that cameras weren’t allowed (as the ad suggests); Obama has visited wounded troops on several other occasions – always privately and without cameras.
Also I forgot to say welcome to visitors from the Philosophers’ Carnival! For those of you who haven’t seen it (and who like philosophy) check out some of the links there, lots of great stuff!!!
The best part of the ad is that the footage going with the claim “he had time to go to the gym” was actually of Obama playing basketball with soldiers in Kuwait.
Nice, I didn’t catch that… that makes it so much better.
Honest question: Could he have gone without them?
While I don’t think it’s right for the McCain campaign to get away with this, I also don’t really understand how “I couldn’t bring some people with me” can be used as such an excuse. Others seem to accept it, though, so I’m asking.
I don’t think it’s so much that his staffers were disallowed as it was what was implied by that disallowal – that his visit was being cast as a campaign stunt and not simply him visiting troops in a hospital. And so he made what (seems to me) a pretty routine decision to alter his itinerary. Whether that’s a “good” reason or not is beside the point; the fact that this is getting so much attention (especially when Obama did indeed spend a considerable amount of his trip interacting with troops) is beyond absurd, or so it seems to me.