McCain ad blasts Obama on Landstuhl

Posted: Sunday, July 27, 2008 12:55 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: Ads

From NBC's Mark Murray and Louis Burgdorf
The McCain campaign yesterday unveiled its latest TV ad, which hits Obama for -- among other things -- cancelling a visit to meet with wounded US soldiers at Landstuhl. "He made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops," the ad goes. "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras. John McCain is always there for our troops

(While Obama didn't visit with those US soldiers at Landstuhl, he did talk to some of them by phone.)

Politico wrote that the ad ran on Saturday Night Live in Denver, CO last night. And today, it will run in the DC market, as well as in Harrisburg, PA.

In response to the TV ad, the Obama campaign released a statement from Sen. Jack Reed (D), who accompanied Obama on his swing through Afghanistan and Iraq. “I was with Sen. Obama last week as we met privately with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sen. Obama listened to their concerns and expressed his gratitude for their service without press or fanfare. He cares for our troops deeply and has worked hard to give them not only the resources they need, but also honor their service with a clearly defined mission and by providing them with the support they have earned when they come home."

Chuck Hagel (R), who also was on the overseas trip, said on CBS this morning that the McCain ad "was inappropriate." He said, "I think it would be totally inappropriate for [Obama], on a campaign trip, to go to a military hospital and use those soldiers as props... We saw troops everywhere we went on the congressional delegation. We went out of our way to see those troops. We wanted to see those troops."

And as one Obama aide points out to First Read, the footage the McCain TV ad uses when saying Obama went "to the gym but cancelled a visit with wounded troops" is when Obama was playing basketball with US troops in Kuwait. "It undermines the credibility of the ad" and proves that the ad is "nothing more than a political attack," the aide says.

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Comments

Until John Mccain and his supporters start trying to convince me why I should believe HE'S ready to lead the country, and what HIS "record or leadership" israther than trying to talk down his opponent over and over, I simply see no reason to vote for the man or anyone in his Party this November.

Why doesn't his campaign recognize that a negative campaign will be a loser for him?

Chris from Baltimore (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:26 PM)

Meet The Press will never be the same. Brokaw is the wrong person for this job. His style of asking questions is lousy. I noticed today the expression on his face while talking to Obama. Maybe its me, but he gave me the impression that he was trying to do a slam on Obama or an "I got ya". When questioning McCain it appears to be completely different. McCain has been given a free pass from all news media people. WHY??? 99% of what McCain has been saying is outrageous, lies, misquotes, trying to take credit for something that he didn't do, etc. and the news media accepts these as truths. Looks like a double standard situation to me.

Leroy, Woodbury, NJ (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:26 PM)

McCain will get more and more desperate over time as it becomes increasingly clear that the math is just not there for him this year. He will lose and thus never get to be president like he always wanted. If you cared as much as he did about getting that job, you would probably be willing to lie a little bit too. It's the name of the game and losers are always bitter.

Brian S, Williamsburg, VA (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:28 PM)

Never, Ever Apologize for Me Barry--I can tell you're repeating talking points and didn't watch the speech. Obama didn't apologize to anyone for anything. What he actually said, in just a couple sentences in a 25 minute speech, was "In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future."
[momentary pause] "Both views miss the truth."

A couple minutes later he said, "I know my country has not perfected itself. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions. But I also know how much I love America."
That's just the God's honest truth, but it's not an apology. As Carl Schurz, a true American patriot said back in 1872 in the US Senate, "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right."

Don't attack a patriot for his patriotism.

Michael Sheridan, Sacramento, California (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:30 PM)

McCain is doing exactly what Obama wanted to avoid doing. He didn't want to place these soldiers in the middle of a political debate and show them disrespect. It had NOTHING to do with the press being there. Obama has visited Walter Reed many times without the press. He was NOT planning on bring the press to the hospital with him. People who are twisting the facts, are either too ignorant or like McCain and his surrogates, choose to ignore the truth!

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=4FE8823D79B012540EA163C17A17164E?diaryId=1671
The problem here is that the McCain campaign was denied a visit to a military base under the same policy back in April. Of course, there was no outcry or false outrage from Brian Rogers at that time.

Obama has repeatedly said that regarding the hospital visit in Germany,” I was going to be accompanied by one of my advisers, a former military officer and we got notice from the Pentagon that he would be treated as a campaign person and it would therefore be perceived as political, because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn't on the Senate staff," Obama said, referring to Gen. Scott Gration, who had worked to organize the trip. He called off the trip as he did not want to make political fodder out of a trip to the wounded military in Germany. He deemed it “inappropriate”. Obviously, McCain does not care about using the military in this way. How pathetic!

Teri from Ohio (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:33 PM)

If McCain had won the nomination in 2000 I would have voted for him, but he seems to have had a breakdown or something. McCain is a different person than he was in 2000. It's almost as if he made some sort of deal with the devil (I mean the Republican party, or Cheney, or Rove, wait Rove is the Devil). The one thing he had going for himself was his apparent independence, but now he seems more like a Bush administration lacky.

Even the techniques he uses to attack Obama are right out of the Rove playbook. Simply lying about why Obama passed on the hospital tour, that's not the way to run the straight talk express. Claiming media bias by trying to compare the news worthyness of an Obama speach in front of 100,000 people to a McCain restaurant meeting with a few dozen is rediculous. Obama was dragged through the mud over some extremely minor gaffs and associations, while McCain gets an essentially free ride when discussing his life.

Look, McCain knew his last chance was in 2000. The Bush Rove team did terrible things to him during that campaign (including bringing up some crap about his military career), but I think they made a deal. The deal seems to have been that if McCain stays with Bush and the republican party, that he would be the 2008 candidate. The problem is that he had to leave the McCain that people liked behind.

captbilly, sacramento, CA (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:33 PM)

McCain told George Stephanopoulus this morning that US troops were greeted as liberators when they arrived in Iraq. McCain is really losing it.

Matt C (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:34 PM)

Hank,

Thanks for showing everyone that the Fox News poll was garbage. It had a 1 point lead when every other poll had one around 5 or 6 points.

And the troop visit thing -- It was a Karl Rove type operation, meant to undermine Obama. But with Hagel and plenty of others criticizing it as unfair and probably an Obama ad coming to trash it, McCain has shot himself in the foot -- kind of like he did when he said Obama should go overseas to begin with.

Suze (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:40 PM)

ABBY: Guess what!!! We don't care who you vote for. Speak for yourself and not millions of other americans. But casting your vote for anyone other than Obama, you're going to lose. Get use to it, Barak Obama a black man, is going to be the next president of the United States.

Leroy, Woodbury, NJ (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:43 PM)

Sen. Obama will admit he was wrong about the surge working when Grandpa admits he was wrong for advocating invading Iraq in the first place. There would be no need for a surge or for the over 4000 dead and 50,000 injured Americans if Bush and Gramps had not lied about weapons of mass destruction which all the experts agreed were not there.

chris, tampa, fl (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:44 PM)

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