Here's a transcript and video
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-fi nkelstein/2008/07/25/mitchell-scuttlebut t-says-mccain-sabotaged-obama-military-h ospital

It's from a site that criticizes Andrea Mitchell for passing along the story -- but I think it's essential that as many folks as possible see it.

ANDREA MITCHELL: The background on the military flap is that they [Obama campaign] had clearly planned a trip to Ramstein [AFB].  They were planning to visit the injured troops. And then the Pentagon explained that they couldn't go as part of a political trip.  The Obama campaign thought that they could go, leave the press corps on the tarmac, and then take off with military escort and make this one last visit.  As he did in Iraq, by the way.  He visited a casualty unit in the Green Zone, without photographers, as part of the congressional delegation. But the military said that the rules are that he could only go as part of a previously-arranged congressional delegation, to Ramstein.

Clearly, people in the campaign are really angry. They had wanted this to be the final stop on the trip here in Germany, and to do it without the press corps, just to do it on his own.  But the objections of the military are that he is now being staffed by campaign aides, not by his Senate staff, who are the people of course with him when he went with Hagel and Jack Reed in Iraq. So, you know, the anger here in the campaign is pretty intense at the Pentagon. They feel that the military are drawing some lines--they're not saying this publicly of course--but drawing lines that they might have drawn for other people.  He was planning to just go by himself, not with cameras, not with any entourage, as he had done in Walter Reed in the past in Washington, as he did in Iraq.

Here you go -

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkel stein/2008/07/25/mitchell-scuttlebutt-sa ys-mccain-sabotaged-obama-military-hospi tal

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The McCain campaign response:

Barack Obama is wrong. It is never inappropriate to visit our men and women in the military.

A little rope-a-dope there.  The Pentagon nixes the troop visit, and McCain blasts him for not supporting the troops.

Apalling yet eloquent in its simple sleaziness.

This sort of thing was created to try to blunt a bounce that Obama could have -- and in fact has -- received.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows a bounce for Barack Obama. The presumptive Democratic nominee attracts 46% of the vote while John McCain earns 41%. When "leaners" are included, it's Obama 49% and McCain 44%. Just three days ago, the candidates were tied at 46% (with leaners).

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_c ontent/politics/election_20082/2008_pres idential_election/daily_presidential_tra cking_poll

Since Rasmuseen is consistently several points behind the major national (non-tracking) polls, this looks very good.

Of course, as usual, we'll have to see if there's a broader trend.

FirstRead:

* UPDATE * From NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube

A U.S. military official tells NBC News they were making preparations for Sen. Barack Obama to visit wounded troops at the Landstuhl Medical Center at Ramstein, Germany on Friday, but "for some reason the visit was called off."

One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, "he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers." In addition, "Obama could not bring any media. Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit."

The official said "We didn't know why" the request to visit the wounded troops was withdrawn. "He (Obama) was more than welcome. We were all ready for him."

TPM confirms that the Pentagon nixed the trip
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsm emo.com/2008/07/pentagon_confirms_that_i t_told.php

It turns out that the Pentagon did in fact tell Obama that in this case, it was not only "inappropriate," but against DOD rules, for him to conduct the visit with campaign staff.

"We have longstanding Department of Defense policy in regards to political campaigns and elections," Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner told me. "We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff."

It's unclear how Obama could have made the visit at all, given the Pentagon's directives. No Senate staff was on the trip, and the Obama camp says they received the Pentagon's directives on Wednesday, after they were already abroad.

The Pentagon cleared the Obama plan to land at the base on either July 15 or 16, Gibbs said. The plane needed the clearance because of restrictions on landing nonmilitary aircraft there, he said.

Asked why he believed the Pentagon would clear the visit, then raised questions about it, Gibbs declined to speculate: "I don't know what to make of it."
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanma rtin/0708/Obama_camp_says_Pentagon_nixed _troop_visit.html

Tin foil hat alert: could the Bush administration be trying to sabotage the Obama visit?

This came out last week:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Democrat Barack Obama began an overseas tour, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told employees at U.S. embassies to provide only minimal help to visiting presidential candidates.
The orders went to all overseas posts and dictated that government employees not do anything that might show favoritism or amount to improper campaign activity. The department said the State Department issued similar orders ahead of presumed Republican nominee John McCain's overseas tours to Iraq, Mexico and elsewhere this year, but rather than distributing them among every overseas post, limited the communication to embassies in countries the Republican planned to visit.

Officials said the orders had been in the works for months and it was just coincidence that they were issued Thursday, the day the presumptive Democratic candidate left Washington for a much-watched trip to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and Europe.

USA Today

I heard the State Department press conference last week when they talked about this, and the Deputy that was there was adamant that the same orders had been issued before McCain's visits overseas, but couldn't seem to remember any of the details, nor could he produce the memo that was allegedly issued.

"We told him he could visit Landstuhl (Regional Medical Center in western Germany) with his Senate staff, but not with his campaign staff," said Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Hibner.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, an adviser to Obama, said Obama had opted against the visit.

"Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country," Gration said, but added: "Sen. Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event."

The visit to Landstuhl had not been officially announced but Obama's campaign acknowledged it had been planned after Republicans criticized Obama for cancelling the visit.

Look we all know by now that no matter what the news Catfish and others will always find and/or create a negative about Obama. He or she is stuck in the anti-Obama position. Trying to have a discussion or change his/her mind is futile. He/she is married to their position and I doubt anything you or I say will ever change move them off their position.

Not trying to censor, but a discussion usually goes beyond your wrong, I'm right. You're a jerk, no you're a jerk. So let Catfish say what ever he she wants, but don't believe for a minute that by engaging him or her a mind is going to be changed.

Scummy GOP tactics, and not all that terribly surprising.  Pretty transparent too.  I suspect most folks will see this for what it is:  the GOP trying to drop a turd into the punchbowl of Obama's otherwise successful trip abroad.

Whatever, when he gets back he can grab senate a staffer or two and drop by Walter Reed.  They gonna stop him there too?

He wasn't allowed his photo op so Mr.Obama decided that he did not want to play by the militaries' rules. They denied Cindy McCain the same sort of visit because she was not an elected official. He could have went without his staff and the media and completed the visit. The regulations have been in place since 1997. Not everything is a conspiracy against Obama.

Of course we know why the right to doing this - to blunt Obama's great news and momentum.

The Republican leadership know how very good this week has been for Obama:

Former Bush White House communications director and counselor Dan Bartlett yesterday offered a strikingly candid assessment of what Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's support for Barack Obama's troop withdrawal plan means for the campaign.

Bartlett, part of President Bush's original cadre of Texas loyalists, left the White House in 2007 and now works for a public affairs firm.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanma rtin/0708/Bartlett_Malikis_move_a_gamech anger.html?showall

Another diary jacked by codfish and his/her lame smears.

Vote Vets documents McCain's hypocrisy:

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?dia ryId=1671
McCain is demonstrably criticizing Obama for following a Pentagon rule to which the McCain campaign itself has been subjected recently.  That's a fact.  So this seems to be a simple cheap shot at Obama, in the hopes that the media won't be internet savvy enough (i.e., able to use Google) to figure out the whole story.

Exactly.  And they have no problem attacking Obama for doing the same.  That's the very definition of "double standard."

wow - you're citing Andrea Mitchell and taking her word alone for it?? The Pentagon has actually said he could visit but only with Govt staff (Senate/SS) - which is a NO-BRAINER!!! Seems that the decision rested with Obama and he declined to go in without his campaign staff.

just preferring to keep things real.

Some folks out there are contending that Obama, with the eyes of the world trained on him and being trailed by the mother of all press corps,  made the decision, in the middle of running for president, not to visit RECENTLY WOUNDED VETERANS because

1. he couldn't take his "posse" with him and
   
2. there wouldn't be any press allowed and
   
3. he couldn't take his photographers
   

Have I got that right?

Because if that's true Obama is the dumbest son of a bitch on the planet.  Just about the only dumber move in an election year would be something like, I dunno, posing in front of a sausage haus with a stupid grin on your face while your opponent was wowing a quarter million people somewhere else.

Seriously now, don't you think even an empty suit like Obama would be smart enough to stay out of the gym after he just callously cancelled a visit to a military hospital?  Don't you think maybe he'd sneak back to his plane for a snooze instead or have the hotel send a stairmaster up to his room?   Why wouldn't he just go find some quiet private corner with a mirror to adore himself in?

Were there any reports of him kicking a german puppy or do you think he's smart enough to control that habit.  Wow.  He blew off wounded soldiers?  Because he couldn't exploit them?  This guy is the next Hitler. I'm shocked the Wailing Wall didn't drop a brick on his head.  What's next?  He's a closet Satan worshipper in league with the ghost of Saddam Hussien, his long lost uncle?  

Oh.  wait.  no. Maybe he's just a coward.  I think I read that on New Repulic this morning.  He's too big a coward to look a wounded soldier in the eyes. Ya no, because he was against the fucked up war that injured the guy from the beginning, and yet he kept funding it so the guy would have the equipment he needed, or maybe because he voted to increase funding for veterans, I'm not sure which.

Yeah, Obama's a big narcissist dumbass alright, too consumed with photo-ops and rock star moments to give a damn about wounded soldiers.  Weird how someone that clueless, heartless and vile has attracted so many ardent supporters.
(well, except for the black folks, we all know the only reason they support him)  It must be that damn soldier snubbing, puppy kicking, promise breaking, woman hating, empty suited charm of his.  It's like crack. You try Obama once, like him just a little, and next thing you know you're an addict and your country is circling the drain.

Thank God that PUMA and the GOP are there to think for the rest of us!

I think some of perfectly understand what went down and it was not cool. He could have went but he did not. Poor choice on his part. Are you folks ever going to hold him accountable for anything? He's clearly in the wrong here.