“That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political,” Obama said. “The last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns. So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been a political controversy, of some sort, what we decided was that we would not make a visit.”
For a man who prides himself on his judgement, it seems to have failed him this time. In the course of planning a world tour in which he would meet with many world leaders and the purpose of which was to enhance his image before voters back home, Mr. Obama did not realize that a visit to Landstuhl military hospital might be misconstrued as having political overtones? Nor did he have the political acumen to realize that abandoning the scheduled visit suddenly would also have political ramifications.
It seems to me the smart move would have been to tell Maj. Gen. Scott Gration that he would need to sit this one out, take only his senatorial staff and visit the troops as the Senator from Illinois. Chalked it up to poor judgement due to lack of experience.
[posted with ecto]