Hannity and Rep. Joe Sestak On Barack Obama’s Cancelled Military Visits [Riverdaughter Update Below]
By SusanUnPC on July 26, 2008 at 1:30 PM in Barack Obama, Germany, Pentagon, Soldiers/Veterans
Rep. Sestak, you are one of my heroes. I know that you have to go along with the Democratic party — and the funding of your reelection campaign is at stake (ahem) — but I am sorry that the party used you like this:
“So if you want my take on this, if you want to remember one thing about this trip, is that Barack Obama chose to work out rather than see the wounded troops because he couldn’t bring Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Brian Williams with him.” — Sean Hannity
See my original story, “Barack Skipped Visiting Wounded Troops in Germany.” And check out Memorandum.com‘s coverage of the controversy.
Here’s more from “The Sean Hannity Show” (syndicated AM radio), July 25, 2008 (SusanUnPC’s Note: I disagree with many of Hannity’s political views, particularly on health care, but on this issue he is 100% correct. Obama could have gone “solo” to visit the troops. That would have been the right thing to do. I cannot fathom his excuse that he didn’t go because his campaign staff wasn’t permitted to accompany him.)
Sean Hannity: “You know I’ve found one article — I hadn’t known this — I was telling you earlier the Obama campaign tried to blame the Pentagon. Here he was scheduled. He wanted to go visit this military hospital. It was on the campaign sheet to go visit the military hospital in Germany. And we find out that the only restrictions the Pentagon wanted to impose was their rule against turning visits by politicians into campaign events.
“And, by the way, you know, I know for a fact because I talked to these kids when I went to Walter Reed and Bethesda, that literally the president would sneak on over often to go see these, kids — you never heard about it, it was never reported. As a matter of fact, I remember I was out there with Ollie North and they said, yeah the president was just here, two days ago, whatever it was. And you know, same thing with Donald Rumsfeld. Donald Rumsfeld used to go over there all the time, but he didn’t turn it into a campaign event.
“Anyway, so Obama has it on the schedule. The Pentagon says, look, you can come but they’re going to impose their rule against turning a visit by a politician into a campaign event. Now this is what we finally are finding out here. All the Pentagon said is they advised Obama’s staff — yeah of course he can visit the hospital and injured personnel in Germany but only in his capacity as a Member of Congress, in other words without the trappings of a political campaign, which by the way, it’s unfair to use sick soldiers who risked their lives as a political prop.
“Obama apparently cancelled the visit and went to work out instead. He went to work out and then said it would be inappropriate as part of a trip financed by his campaign. Well, as John McCain said, it’s never inappropriate if you are a United States Senator to visit a sick soldier. It’s never inappropriate. There’s not one taxpayer in the country that would have any opposition to this nor is there any rules against this. The only difference is the only restriction that was placed is that they don’t want to have candidates, you know, using the appearance for some type of political benefit. That wasn’t enough. He had to bring along of course the entourage and the multiple 10,000 media press secretaries along with him.
“So if you want my take on this, if you want to remember one thing about this trip is that Barack Obama chose to work out rather than see the wounded troops because he couldn’t bring Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Brian Williams with him.”
UPDATE:
From a very clever, imaginative story by “madamab” at The Confluence, “Bill Burton’s Secret Weapon: A Play in One Scientific Act“:
AXELROD: Okay, Bill, we’ve got several things that need our immediate attention. First off, as you know, President Obama’s foreign-policy experience has now been brought up to parity with John McCain’s after his week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East. So we’re all good there. However, we estimated that a million people would attend his speech in Berlin, and even with two free concerts thrown in, we were nowhere near that number. Can we figure out how many people attended?
BURTON: No problemo! [addressing the box on his desk] Computer, how many people attended the Berlin rally?
COMPUTER [in sultry female voice]: Please press the green button. [BURTON does so.] Your answer is: Two hundred thousand.
AXELROD: Great, great. I’ll send it out now. [notates the number in his iPhone and quickly sends it off to his press mailing list] Okay, next item is: The President skipped a visit to the troops while in Berlin because the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring in his cameras. How do we make it clear that President Obama does not, in fact, think of the troops as just a campaign prop?
BURTON [drawing in his breath]: Oooooh, that’s a tough one. Let’s see what our girl can come up with. Computer, what is the reason for Obama’s skipping his visit to the troops?
COMPUTER: Please press the red button. [BURTON does so.] Your answer is: I.A.C.F.
AXELROD [confused]: IACF?
BURTON [embarrassed at the faux pas]: Um, that stands for “It’s All Clinton’s Fault.” I keep telling her that is no longer an acceptable response, but she keeps defaulting to it – I don’t know why. [addressing computer] Computer, please give alternate reason.
COMPUTER: Please press the red button. [BURTON does so.] Your alternate reason is: George W. Bush.
AXELROD: George W. Bush? What does she mean by that?
BURTON [nervously]: Search me. [both think for a moment]
AXELROD: Wait, wait! I’ve got it! We’ll say the Pentagon stopped him from going. They were worried that it would look like a campaign visit. Brilliant, Bill! Gotta love that machine. [BURTON is visibly relieved. AXELROD dashes off another communique to the press corpse.] …
by Ronald Scott
* More novels by 
* 
(
)
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
Pingback: Turn Left News › July 26, 2008