McCain Camp Slams Obama on Troops and "Fawning" Foreigners

The McCain Campaign has finally found its line of attack against Barack Obama's widely heralded global tour. Ever since Obama canceled a trip to visit wounded soldiers in Germany, based on logistical disagreements with the Pentagon, McCain has used the snafu to argue that Obama -- you guessed it -- does not support the troops. A new ad, released on Saturday, assails Obama for prioritizing limelight and exercise over honoring American soldiers:

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

The ad is running in selected markets in Colorado, Pennsylvania and DC. The campaign would not release the overall ad buy; the limited run suggests it is more focused on shaping the media narrative than directly persuading voters around the country. The McCain camp is energized, however, about using the canceled visit as a chance to reframe Obama's entire trip. Aides have been pushing a statement from a veteran chiding Obama that "visits with world leaders and speeches to cheering Europeans shouldn't be a substitute for comforting injured American heroes." McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds is hammering that contrast between homegrown heroes and foreign crowds, telling The Nation on Saturday that Obama:

...failed to recognize the need to visit wounded combat troops, instead choosing to continue on with a schedule that included meeting with international leaders and fawning Germans.

He added that the canceled visit was one of "two key takeaways that spoke to [Obama's] inexperience or judgment." (Bounds said the other was Obama's declaration that he will not be "refining or redeveloping" his foreign policy positions.) And rather than leave the superficial sniping to surrogates, John McCain jumps into the act on Sunday, telling ABC News' "This Week" that if the Pentagon interfered with his plan to visit troops, "I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event."

The McCain Campaign's melodramatic attack is wrong on two levels. First, it is false to suggest that the trip was canceled over "cameras" or the "gym." The trip was spiked during discussions with the Pentagon over whether a defense aide could accompany Obama and how to prevent the trip from being politicized. (Both Obama and McCain have recently made closed-press trips to visit wounded soldiers.)

Second, these trip logistics have nothing to do with being president. The related attacks, just like attempts to measure patriotism by lapel jewelery, are a complete diversion from the actual foreign policy issues at stake. Every candidate kisses babies and visits soldiers, but the rituals reveal nothing about our potential leaders. McCain has often talked about his commitment to running a campaign based on issues. Yet now he is seizing on a meaningless non-event, exploiting American troops by casting them as victims in this petty squabble, and impugning an opponent who just addressed soldiers, international leaders and foreign citizens to outline a new course for America in the world. Obama's trip clearly made Obama look big. It took McCain's reaction to make McCain look so small.

Update: Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor just released a response to the McCain ad on Saturday evening:

John McCain is an honorable man who is running an increasingly dishonorable campaign. Senator McCain knows full well that Senator Obama strongly supports and honors our troops, which is what makes this attack so disingenuous. Senator Obama was honored to meet with our men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan this week and has visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed numerous times. This politicization of our soldiers is exactly what Senator Obama sought to avoid, and it's not worthy of Senator McCain or the "civil" campaign he claimed he would run.

Comments (37)

1. Desperate times, Desperate measures...

   Posted by Vvf1969 at 07/26/2008 @ 6:52pm

2. WcCain has never looked so out of touch.

   His campaign advisors, just as bad.

   He seems not to know his own position from day to day.

   His "audacity of hopelessness" line made me laugh out loud, and lately WcCain just seems old, cranky, and petulant.

   Since WcCain's taken to borrowing (twisting) Obama's phrases, here's WcCain's new campaign motto:

   No, he can't. Really.

   Posted by tnathant at 07/26/2008 @ 7:12pm

3. Good response from the Obama campaign, challenging McCain to do better....

   Posted by JonPincus at 07/26/2008 @ 8:15pm

4. First of all, the surge wasn't John McCain's idea. It took Condoleeza Rice having a state department employee in Iraq bringing the clear, hold and build strategy to her. She then brought it to Bush. This was done because Rumsfeld would give her no information, so she sent her own guy. Condi Rice first mentioned it in a meeting with a Congressional Committee. McCain never once mentioned clear, hold and build before Rice's testimony. Please feel free to look up the timelines.

   Part of the surge was to make cash payments to tribal leaders not to fight. Good old cash did as much as the increase in soldiers. And still, even with increased troop strength, we were fighting "insurgents" or "Al Queda in Iraq" which is NOT Bin Ladin's Al Queda. McCain pounds his little keebler elf chest about sending more people into a mission with no goal line, which is the biggest shame you can bestow on the military.

   Meanwhile, the people we were supposed to be fighting before we invaded Iraq so the participants at the Cheney secret meeting could get Iraqi oil field leases regrouped and are now at pre 9/11 strength.

   What has invading Iraq done to benefit the people of the US? We have had almost 45,000 injured, over 4,000 dead, a trillion dollars, no reduced cost oil from Iraq and now we are talking about leaving. Patton is rolling in his grave. McCain is a pretend soldier, he flew a plane. That's his military experience. He got a target package and dropped bombs on it. He never commanded troops on the ground, never planned an assault, and never faced the enemy eye to eye like, oh, Wesley Clark.

   We owned the sky over Iraq. Hussein was already isolated. All we had to do was go around him, and go after Bin Ladin in Afghanistan.

   Does anyone ever go back and question why, when the CIA said they were certain they had Bin Ladin pinned down in Tora Bora and asked for some special ops reinforcements to end this thing, nothing, not one thing, was done for 30 days? Now, if the CIA tells you they've got Bin Ladin pinned down, and you were President, wouldn't you immediately send a quick strike force, which is always ready to be anywhere in the world in 24 hours, to go kill him? Why? Because they didn't want to catch him, never have.

   McCain is a pitiful dupe, who supported invading Iraq in the first place. Hell, I served too, and I killed people face to face, at times with my own hands. McCain saying he knows how to win wars is the most asinine, unproveable statement uttered in this whole campaign. Rice is a better military planner than McCain.

   Obama is letting him exhaust what he thinks is his moment. All McCain has done is to ensure that the response, when it comes, will prove what a fraud his entire life and his story, that is full of lies, is. Remember, this is also the little bastard who didn't want to pass the expanded GI Bill and who now says he wants to ration VA care.

   His military experience is that he was a bad pilot and got shot down, and the real reason he didn't want to get sent home is that he couldn't face his father, who he has never been able to please. He and Bush have the same issue. They don't need public office, they need therapy. Perhaps Cindy can dip into her bag of stolen meds and calm his pretend-soldier butt down.

   Posted by napalminthemorning at 07/26/2008 @ 8:18pm

5. i am so enjoying the demise of the GOP

   it's party time, baby

   Posted by darladoon at 07/26/2008 @ 8:38pm

6. The race looks pretty close to me...your over-confidence looks a lot like Dewey in 1948...

   Posted by pyeatte at 07/26/2008 @ 9:33pm

7. Just like dewey 48'... ok.. lol.

   Posted by Vvf1969 at 07/26/2008 @ 9:55pm

8. John McLame McCain cannot get over his INABILITY to inspire anyone and his obvious envy at Obama's presidential ability to attract large crowds to hear policy speeches.

   McCain can barely attract the few dozen people or so at his so-called "town halls" for his video-ops.

   When McCain traveled overseas to Afghanastan, Iraq, Columbia, Mexico and Canada since sewing up the Republican nomination, nobody noticed and nobody cared.

   The bottom line is that McCain is not very interesting to Americans or the rest of the world, and Obama is.

   Posted by Metteyya at 07/26/2008 @ 9:58pm

9. Pyeatte, the race is close in, where, Virginia, North Dakota, Montana, all those great blue states?

   We're not overconfident. We're working hard to push the Republican fascist criminals into the political wilderness.

   And it's happening in places that have been off limits for decades.

   Posted by tnathant at 07/26/2008 @ 10:14pm

10. I'd say Grandpa is just being petty, but lately that's about all he's been. I mean come on, ad buys in Berlin when Obama is in Berlin? Eating in a German restaurant? Cheap publicity stunts. Makes me wonder what kind of clowns run his campaign.

    Posted by yutsano at 07/26/2008 @ 10:48pm

11. We're working hard to push the Republican fascist criminals into the political wilderness.

    Posted by tnathant at 07/26/2008 @ 10:14pm

    to be replaced with ¿what?

    make sure you get what you pay for.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/26/2008 @ 10:49pm

12. Frosty, I'm no great fan of our present cadre of spineless, complicit Dems, epitomized by the DINO Blue Dogs.

    Still, I'm really bored with the there's no difference meme that virally repeats across all sorts of blogs.

    Yeah, there's not enough of a difference, not by a long shot. And, as the Daley machine in Chicago shows, to pick just one example, Democrats can be every bit as corrupt as the Republicans. Yes, Gore Vidal was right, the US has one party with two right wings. Fine.

    If you think that the Roberts/Alito/Scalia/Thomas dominated SC is no different than Ginsburg/Breyer/Souter court would be, well, that is just plain wrong.

    Posted by tnathant at 07/26/2008 @ 11:25pm

13. If you think that the Roberts/Alito/Scalia/Thomas dominated SC is no different than Ginsburg/Breyer/Souter court would be, well, that is just plain wrong.

    Posted by tnathant at 07/26/2008 @ 11:25pm

    of course.

    it's just a very sad state of affairs when the choice is between wonderbread and kraft dinner.

    obama is worser.

    mccain is worsererest.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/26/2008 @ 11:47pm

14. mccain,

    the guy is lost.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDIAsS9VXiM

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/27/2008 @ 12:08am

15. it's just a very sad state of affairs when the choice is between wonderbread and kraft dinner.

    obama is worser.

    mccain is worsererest.

    Hey frosty zoom.. My sentiments exactly. And I just got done eating a Kraft macaroni and Wonderbread sammie.

    Posted by chaoszen at 07/27/2008 @ 05:51am

16. His own idea blew up in his face...that being goading Obama to go to Iraq with the Media in tow.

    It was SUPPOSED to be Obama looking out of his element and being lectured to by Petraeus.

    Instead...Obama seemed comfortable at ease, the troops liked him, the Geramn speech was nearly perfect, and al-Maliki endorsed his (Obama's) withdrawal plan...

    leaving McCain as the only one supporting an "indeterminate" time "horizon" for withdrawal.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 07/27/2008 @ 08:22am

17. "...failed to recognize the need to visit wounded combat troops, instead choosing to continue on with a schedule that included meeting with international leaders and fawning Germans." Interesting to know what the McCain camp thinks of the Germans. I can now have my own opinion on them. Is it really part of their campaign to insult citizens of a foreign country? Greetings from Germany...

    Posted by Dilek at 07/27/2008 @ 11:42am

18. So much on McCains alleged "experience" in international relations. It's a headline on all the major german news websites that McCain calls Germans "fawning"... he won't make any friends this way.

    Posted by mcnuss at 07/27/2008 @ 12:33pm

19. Posted by Dilek at 07/27/2008 @ 11:42am

    fawner!

    that's right. youse not merkin. youse uh fawner.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/27/2008 @ 12:50pm

20. no. no. no.

    mccain said germanic humour made them very "fawny".

    hahahaha.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/27/2008 @ 12:52pm

21. ....fawning Germans... oh please.

    Doesn't McCain always go on about how he wants to be different from Bush? The only thing that is different is how McCain is way faster than Bush in pushing good friends away. Obama is very impressive and it's a little sad that the German political system wouldn't accept his type of phenomenon but I thought we as friends should be fair and listen to McCain as well. If McCain made the same trip as Obama he would be as welcomed as Obama and we would show him the same respect. However, it is hard to hear from a struggling candidate such an insult to Germans who are still close to the U.S. This perhaps will not effect the election but it will effect friendships, which are more important than politicians.

    I hope the Americans will vote wisely this term.

    Posted by Schonek at 07/27/2008 @ 1:02pm

22. Fawning Germans

    ???

    Millions of them went to the streets and protested against Bush's folly in Iraq PRIOR to the war. Unlike most Americans that had their pants full and lapped up every lie that Bush and his fellow warmongers spewed out. Talk of "fawning".

    If McCain should ever become president, Germans will remember this "fawning" statement. There is now even less hope that Germans will help to bail out America in Afghanistan.

    It would be hard for Obama if he became president, it will be impossible for McCain.

    Thanks, McCain.

    Posted by Wissler at 07/27/2008 @ 1:33pm

23. McCain could never look small

    Posted by frankgrits at 07/26/2008 @ 10:12pm

    er, http://tinyurl.com/5rxg4m

    The McCave is caving, a sink hole, flushing the last of the backwash, ...

    Another few days or weeks of this and McCave's gone to obscurity, once again. Maybe he'll have another come back in late-November or mid-December sometime. Oops.

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 2:02pm

24. Study: Networks Much Tougher On Obama Than McCain

    LA Times | July 27, 2008 10:46 A

    http://tinyurl.com/6998se

    Oh duh...

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 2:13pm

25. 200,000 Germans and how many were American ex pats and how many watched on television, and how many were foreign service in disguise? They do have television over there, you know. I have never met a "fawning"German. I know plenty of Germans who don't particularly care for the arrogance of this administration. Much of the press in Germany seems to suggest that they are really hoping for a change in direction in our foreign policy.

    Posted by julien38 at 07/27/2008 @ 3:56pm

26. WAR

    ___March 20, 2003

    ___http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War

    WAR OVER

    ___May 1, 2003

    ___http://tinyurl.com/32do8m

    SURGE 1

    ___August 14, 2003

    ___http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/

    Un-SURGE 1

    ___Spring 2004

    ___http://tinyurl.com/5l4ra7

    Re-SURGE (level 2)

    ___December 2, 2004

    ___http://tinyurl.com/5pk6u

    Re-Un-SURGE (level 2)

    ___Spring 2006

    ___http://tinyurl.com/5fn8up

    ___http://tinyurl.com/5kybne

    Counter-Re-Un-SURGE (level 3)

    ___January 2007

    ___http://tinyurl.com/6r8voa

    Semi-Counter-Re-Un-SURGE (level 4)

    ___November 2007

    ___http://tinyurl.com/6zp4xl

    Current-Counter-Re- Un-SURGE (level 4)

    ___June 2008

    So which type of SURGE worked? Was it working or not working because of all the other un-surges or was it the re-surges? Real numbers show an increase and decrease in death, attacks, wounded, etc. on multiple occasions-- so were we winning before we were losing before we were winning before we were... ad infinitum?

    Average Number Daily Insurgent Attacks In Iraq

    Feb-June 05 - 61.8

    Aug 05-Jan O6 - 81.1

    Feb-May 06 - 89.9

    May-Aug 06 - 113.4

    Aug-Nov 06 - 152.9

    Nov 06-Feb 07 - 148.9

    Feb-May 07 - 159.8

    So as Obama predicted there were increases in attacks and we have already had more casualties in the 1st 6 months of 2008 than in the 1st 6 months of the war in 2003- 1400+ versus about 1100 then. And are we winning when more of our troops are getting injured now than in the beginning of the war over 5 years ago? How short-sighted does one have to become to fall for the new con repub packaging BS just one more time? Obviously for some, it is a unlimited.

    And unless anyone forgot-- more of our troops died in 2007 than in any other year of the war. For Obama, apparently that still isn't a good choice considering we were lied into this war of choice in the first place-- HELLO. When will it ever be ok to let more of our troops die for new con repub corporate war profiteering?

    http://icasualties.org/oif/

    http://tinyurl.com/67op57

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 7:05pm

27. BOUNCE CONTINUES:

    July 27, 2008

    Gallup Daily: Obama 49%, McCain 40%

    http://tinyurl.com/5ol9uh

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 7:11pm

28. Posted by lvliberty1 at 07/27/2008 @ 10:17pm

    Does it matter that McCave did the exact same thing when he was in Germany and skip seeing the troops are he was no longer on the congressional tax payer dole and it would be considered campaigning no matter what-- now does that mean McCave like you are big fat hype-critters? Well of course it does.

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 10:24pm

29. er, ...McCave did the exact same thing when he was in Germany and skip seeing the troops 'as' he was no longer on the congressional tax payer dole and it would be considered campaigning no matter what...

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 10:26pm

30. Some of you people are exactly the type of folks that this new McCain ad is designed to appeal to.

    People who have no understanding of geography (but then what can you say when McCain himself doesn't seem to understand that Iraq doesn't have a border with Pakistan). The McCain ad tries to sell the message that all Senator Obama had to do was drive down the block to visit the troops at Landstuhl. The reality is that Landstuhl RMC is over 400 miles from Berlin. Once the military took away his ability to land the campaign plane on a military base there was no close air field that could accomodate a 757. The worst part of this ad is that it smells of hypocrisy. When McCain visited Europe in March with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Joseph Lieberman they all had ample opportunity to vist the troops at Landstuhl. Actually they were significantly closer to Landstuhl than Senator Obama was.

    http://www.jedreport.com/2008/07/why-didnt-mccai.html

    Perhaps Senator McCain decided the fund raiser in London was MORE important than visiting troops in Europe.

    Posted by skibum49 at 07/27/2008 @ 10:59pm

31. It's just so so sad...

    Maybe it's just a new con repub thing:

    http://tinyurl.com/5k58hj

    http://tinyurl.com/5nbzuj

    http://tinyurl.com/5rq4tf

    http://tinyurl.com/6enq9s

    http://tinyurl.com/6mrl7n

    http://tinyurl.com/5gwkna

    Oh MAW:

    http://tinyurl.com/69vyo3

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 11:47pm

32. Sad, just so sad:

    McCain Fumbles His "This Week" Appearance stumble

    July 27, 2008 01:21 PM

    http://tinyurl.com/5rxg4m

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 11:52pm

33. Cool:

    Obama also responded to critics who said his trip was presumptuous for a presidential candidate.

    "I basically met with the same folks that John McCain met with after he won the nomination,'' the Illinois senator said.

    Talking with world leaders is "part of the job that I'm applying for, and so I was puzzled by this notion that somehow what we were doing was in any way different from what Senator McCain or a lot of presidential candidates have done in the past,'' Obama said. "Now, I admit we did it really well. But that shouldn't be a strike against me.''

    Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 11:57pm

34. Posted by hsuBfools at 07/27/2008 @ 7:05pm

    excellent.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/28/2008 @ 12:20am

35. Then they even excuse his completely unexcusable snub of our wounded troops. That is also no surprise, given the disdain most on the left have for the military (note: I said most, not all).

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 07/27/2008 @ 10:17pm

    i heard obama say that he hates the troops so much that he would send them into battle with insufficient armour, training, and guidance in a war based on lies and greed.

    now, that is a true america hater.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/28/2008 @ 12:23am

36. One only has to look at Frosty's postings to see the aptness of this column.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 07/27/2008 @ 10:17pm

    are you accusing me of america envy?

    by golly, i think your right!

    so big and phallic.

    i'd love to show you the world. not from your "lofty" throne of self-centred smugness, but from the point of view of real humans.

    the kind jesus favoured.

    go for lunch in tehran. yum.

    have some arepas in caracas.

    i'd like you to see that the people you want to vapourize are PEOPLE.

    with kids and tvs and dreams and faults.

    i post for peace!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/28/2008 @ 12:36am

37. One only has to look at Frosty's postings to see the aptness of this column.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 07/27/2008 @ 10:17pm

    perhaps you should worry about your own neighbourhood first:

    Two dead, 7 wounded in Tennessee church shooting

    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - A man opened fire with a shotgun in a church in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Sunday, killing two people, including a man called a hero for shielding others from a shotgun blast, police and local media reported.

    Seven others were wounded, four critically, police said.

    The gunman was tackled by church-goers and taken into custody by police. He was charged later with first-degree murder, but police declined to give a motive for the shooting and the Tennessean newspaper said his motive remained unknown.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 07/28/2008 @ 02:00am