wounded

The Obama European Tour says it had originally planned to visit wounded American servicemen and women at the U.S. Army hospital at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, but scrubbed it for political reasons. The European leg of Senator Obama’s overseas trip, not considered a Congressional Delegation (as was his trip to the Middle East) is funded solely by his campaign and he felt that visiting American wounded would appear to be viewed as political opportunism.

Obama advisors explained,

“We learned from the Pentagon [Wednesday] night that the visit would be viewed … as a campaign event. Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event…” [therefore,] “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”

The McCain camp staunchly disagreed and criticized Obama’s decision:

“Barack Obama is wrong,” … “It is never ‘inappropriate’ to visit our men and women in the military.”

For Barack Obama, it’s inappropriate to do something that he can’t get any political mileage out of. He was afraid of the appearance of politicizing the troop visit and didn’t want the headache. Of course, he could have paid a visit to Landstuhl without cameras and reporters in tow. He could have respected the servicemen and women with a private visit to thank them for their service and sacrifice. But, no, that would be inappropriate.

So, instead of visiting American wounded, Obama remained in Berlin.

(and slept in, no doubt).

MORE: The American Pundit; RedState; Wake up America; Hot Air: here and here

UPDATE: McCain blasts Obama on canceling troop visit!