The ad says that Obama “made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras.” As I wrote yesterday it seems the reason that Obama scrapped the visit is because he couldn’t bring along retired Gen. Scott Gration. Blowing off wounded troops in order to keep an adviser’s ego from being wounded is truly reprehensible. So why did the ad assume the worst and accuse Obama of something even more reprehensible? I don’t know. I largely agree with Allahpundit that the ad shouldn’t have included that line. But here’s the question: Would Obama have blown off the troops at Landstuhl had he not already gotten all of those great photo ops with the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq? A lot of bloggers are pointing out that the shot in the ad of Obama playing basketball occurred while he was with troops in Afghanistan. This seems to reinforce rather than undercut ad’s point that Obama is willing to use the troops as props in photo ops. One last point: David Axelrod flat-out lied when he said that the Pentagon “said [Obama] should not come”. The only requirements the Pentagon issued were that the press and campaign staff could not accompany Obama. So the McCain campaign cut an ad that assumed the worst. That was probably a mistake, but it’s not nearly as bad as what Obama did to the troops at Landstuhl.
