Obama snubs wounded American soldiers to speak to German masses

Go figure. Hot-shot racist Barak Obama snubbed the wounded American troops in a hosptial in Germany so that he could speak to 200,000 GERMANS, who can't even vote for him. Why is the media so far up Obama's ass? Are we, as a country, to blind to see past the color of his skin, the novelty of his bid for the presidency, ... the racist background of his, his wife, and his mentor, Jeremiah Wright? Honestly. (bold emphasis in story below is mine)


from http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080727/wl_afp/usvote_080727031825

Obama returns to face McCain music over missed GI visit
by Stephen Collinson Sat Jul 26, 11:18 PM ET

CHICAGO (AFP) - White House hopeful Barack Obama returned from a triumphant, presidential-looking foreign tour but immediately faced a new assault from rival John McCain over his cancellation of a visit with wounded US troops in Germany.

Despite the adulation that greeted him on a his stops through the Middle East and Europe, before departing London the Democratic Party candidate played down the potential gains the trip might have for him in the presidential race.

"I am not sure that there is going to be some immediate political impact," Obama said in a solo press conference earlier outside 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"I wouldn't even be surprised if that in some polls you saw a little bit of a dip as a consequence," he said, just over three months before the election.

Obama sailed through the biggest tests of his trip, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, apparently gaffe-free, and captured an unprecedented photo-op for a presidential candidate, speaking before a staggering 200,000 people in Berlin.

Republicans however branded his tour, also including Kuwait, France and Jordan, as a shallow political stunt.

And McCain's team sought to highlight Obama's failure to visit wounded troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at the Landstuhl US military hospital in Germany on Friday -- probably the only real hiccup of the trip.

"I think there have been nine different excuses out of Barack Obama's campaign as to why that trip and that visit never took place, and all of them fundamentally ignore one fact, which is that he couldn't make time in his schedule to meet with wounded combat troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan," McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds told Fox News on Saturday.

"He prioritizes throngs of fawning Germans over meeting with wounded combat troops in Germany," Bounds said.

And even before Obama got off the plane in Chicago, McCain already had created a television ad raising the issue.

"And now, he made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras," the ad goes.

Obama's tour was seen as an attempt to reduce voters' doubts over his credentials as commander-in-chief -- one of the few policy areas in which he trails McCain.

In London Obama and Brown sat on wicker chairs on the back patio of Number 10 and chatted, one-on-one, before strolling together, watched by armed security teams on the adjacent Horse Guards Parade.

Obama said the hour-long talks ranged through a string of foreign policy challenges, including Iran's nuclear drive and his desire to refocus US military policy on rising violence in Afghanistan.
He declined to offer Brown any political advice, after the premier slumped this week to his third by-election defeat in as many months.

"I will tell you that you are always more popular before you are actually in charge of things," Obama said.

"Once you are responsible then you are going to make some people unhappy, and that is just the nature of politics."

Obama also met Brown's predecessor Tony Blair, now the international community's Middle East envoy, and opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron.

Those meetings followed visits with France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel, Obama opening relations with Washington's three largest allies in Europe.

Compared to Berlin, where he addressed an estimated 200,000-strong crowd to rapturous cheers and applause Thursday, the London leg of Obama's world tour, like his short stop in Paris Friday, was more low key.

But it was not clear how the trip would play back home, as Obama himself admitted.
Latest opinion polls in the United States show McCain chipping away at Obama's national lead, which stands at between one and six points, and closing in some key battlegrounds.

McCain, who has struggled to get media coverage in the United States during Obama's trip, delivered a sarcastic verdict on Obama's travels in his weekly radio address.

"This week the presidential contest was a long-distance affair, with my opponent touring various continents and arriving yesterday in Paris," he said.

"With all the breathless coverage from abroad, and with Senator Obama now addressing his speeches to 'the people of the world', I'm starting to feel a little left out. Maybe you are too."