The McCain campaign is continuing to push the notion that Barack Obama wasn't really interested in visiting recuperating soldiers in Germany.
Now is not the time to mince words. This is a lie.
The McCain campaign is lying to the American public and the press and hoping that journalists will be too stupid to notice, and report the controversy in he-said, she-said, we're-clueless terms. MSNBC, thankfully, does its job. The Obama campaign planned to visit with his military aide (that's an "advisor on military policy" not "current member of the armed services who accompanies Obama on Senate trips") but never planned to take the press. The Pentagon ruled this a political visit since the aide is on the campaign staff as well, forcing Obama to cancel the visit. I believe Obama made calls to the bases in question, but can't find a news article on the subject.
The American people are not idiots and should be able to see through this, especially since McCain's ad uses footage of Obama visiting troops in Kuwait. But now is note the time for "objective" reporting that refuses to assess the truth value of TV ads and campaign statements. This is bullshit, pure and simple.
This is a lie.
But it's a straight-talking, mavericky lie.
The poor guy's only saying things like this because that's what you've got to do to win elections in America; he didn't really mean it.
I came up with all that in about 15 seconds, off the top of my head. Must mean I'm fully qualified to be a pundit with a column in the WaPo and regular appearances on Sunday morning political talk shows.
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | July 28, 2008 at 03:01 PM
Overqualified. You can write a coherent sentence without a bullshit talking point in it.
Posted by: Sir Charles | July 28, 2008 at 03:05 PM
Now, now, Nick, I must take exception to one thing:
"The American people are not idiots . . . ."
Perhaps some of the time. But they did give us the Moron-in-Chief, twice. Even if one election or another was stolen, enough people still voted for him that their level of idiocy does give one pause.
Posted by: Lisa Simeone | July 28, 2008 at 04:44 PM
McCain is disturbed, maybe its age
both he and Obama are missing the picture. My problem is that Our America aint black or white – it’s green besides I don’t listen to talking heads, folk here don’t get down like that I say work hard and don’t complain nice spot, chk me out one day and if u like what u read, maybe u will come back, even Blog Roll Me
Posted by: rawdawgbuffalo | July 28, 2008 at 06:04 PM