Obama continues to show love to Europe.
Obama’s ‘important’ speech in Berlin, Germany today was referred to as Obamafest. He got lots of great photo ops and headlines out of the whole thing. Unfortunately, he didn’t get time to stop by and see wounded American troops in Germany. You know, he was busy and all. Read about it below and see photos and a video.
(updated)
Obamafest Berlin
It started with the much ballyhooed trip to the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama said he wanted to meet with troops and generals to make an assessment as to whether or not we should continue to fight our enemies or bring the troops home in defeat. He got lots of photo ops with the troops and Hamid Karzai. The spit and polished campaign spots that were played over and over again turned out to be staged and faked. Whoops. We haven’t seen those anymore.
Turns out that despite his best attempts to manipulate the media coverage and make it appear the troops loved him, they didn’t. In fact, he did not get the warm reception he has become accustomed to where ever he goes. So he moved on and didn’t show anymore coverage of that.
After his brief touch down and take off in Iraq where he met General Petraeus, we got word that he ‘agreed to disagree‘ with the General. He AGREED TO DISAGREE WITH THE GENERAL! The arrogance of that is astounding.
Then he flipped off to Israel and Palestine and said all the wrong things to all the wrong people, continuing the embarrassment of one naive gaff after the next that would get anyone else laughed out of the country. Luckily for him, the press has his back and its hardly, if ever, reported. He was heckled at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall. It seems he put up campaign posters all over the place. Aside from his complete disrespect of the most holy of sites for Judaism, I didn’t know he was running for President of Israel.
Never mind. He got a good photo of him looking pensive and downright prayerful at the Wailing Wall that didn’t show a bit of the chaos that his presence there invoked. Best of all, he only had to stay there a few minutes and then he could leave for Europe which is a lot more fun.
The big plan was for a huge showing at the Obamafest in Berlin. He wanted to have it at Brandenburg Gate so he could invoke the images of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, but the dang Germans didn’t seem to understand that he was to give an ‘important’ speech and acted a little huffy about it. He had to settle for giving his speech at Hitler’s favorite Berlin monument the Victory Column. Best of all, his people arranged that big dog and pony show to happen immediately after a rock concert - but according to Obama’s people the old media, they were all there to see Obama.
No one mentioned that he had insulted France and England by spending so much time and money on Germany and just swinging by them as an afterthought. International politics are complicated and the simplicity with which Obama apparently sees the world doesn’t quite grasp the nuances of diplomacy.
++ Paris Left Cold by Obama Visit ++
3:30 p.m.: While Obama’s Berlin visit has caused a stir, hardly anyone is interested in his trip to Paris on Friday. There are hardly any French media reports on the eve of his visit. There is merely some grumbling about the extensive itinerary for his trip to Berlin. “A speech in Berlin, five little hours in Paris,” writes French daily Le Monde.
What about the troops? This whole thing was originally about the troops and the Global War on Terrorism, right? We kind of forgot about them once he got a cold reception from the troops on his first stops in Afghanistan and Iraq and he got caught making fake news reports about it.
Well, he apparently did learn that the troops watch Fox News during his short dash through their lives. He was able to use that to make a joke at Fox News’ expense - and insult the troops while he was at it. I’m sure he doesn’t realize he insulted them, because he doesn’t understand them at all. What he said was that the Commander and Chief makes them watch Fox News. The implication of that would be that they don’t have minds or will to do what they want. That’s the old liberal insult to American Soldiers. That they are just robotons without brains or free will. Poor, uneducated, kind of dumb guys who can’t do anything other than blow things up for ‘the man’ without giving thought to what they are doing. The concept of service to the country is so completely alien to him/them that they can’t conceive of honor, integrity, courage and duty for the sake of country.
After all, Obama made it clear, while he was in Berlin, that he’s a citizen of the world rather than of just America.
And now he ignores wounded Soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Its seems that Obama has never been to Berlin before and wanted to tour around a bit. He extended his stay there, cutting into his time in France. If he had gone by Landstuhl and the military bases in Germany, he’d have had even less time in Berlin.
Whoops! He didn’t mean to say that. He corrected it. He refined his explanation several times. After a long meeting with some of his 300 advisers, he made a statement that he felt it was inappropriate to go by to see the troops as part of a campaign stop [note reference to campaign posters at the Wailing Wall, which apparently he didn't view as inappropriate]. But he told Berliners that he wasn’t there campaigning. Well, then he said that he had visited troops and even wounded troops in Afghanistan while he was there and felt it was intrusive for him to impose himself and his campaign on them while he was there.
Besides, he hadn’t gotten to a beer hall yet and Berlin is a GREAT city to visit and he had to get on to France to do a photo op or two before he had to head off to London to make sure he got a photo op with the King and Queen there (they do have a King and Queen, right?). There really is so little time and he’d already done what he came there to do, speak in Berlin about walls and stuff and look Presidential.
Then there the thing about the Soldiers not really being happy to see him. It was awful trying to get that ‘warm welcome by soldiers’ shot in Afghanistan. They had to do LORD ONLY KNOWS how many takes for him to make that basketball goal and a handful of soldiers meant close-in camera shots so it looks more crowded. How on earth could he get that kind of shot at a military base or a military hospital. What if they just aren’t thronging around him? It would be wasted time with no take-away great photos.
Oh hell, he’s not getting their votes anyway. He’ll write them off like he did West Virginia, Kentucky and any other state he knew he couldn’t win.
And besides, they are just American Soldiers and Obama is a citizen of the world.
7.28.2008 Update It turns out that in spite of the propaganda otherwise, the Germans weren’t as enthralled with Obama as he’d want us to believe. As if it mattered if they were …..
Obamafest Berlin - Photos
Obamafest Berlin - Video
photo credit: Real Clear Politics, Monsters & Critics
photoshop credit: Exurban League
July 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
As a member of the United States Senate barack obama has the right liie any other citizen that would meet with General Petraeus to agree to disagree with him. Here’s the upshot you guys got your war and the peace was hacked up by the neocons. Saddam was killed and anything he knew went to Hell with him and last I checked he’s not telling a Soul. The American people love a winner but whatever this war in Iraq is it should be over and soon and if it takes a victory parade to shut you guys up once an for all then so be it. I personally congratulate you on behalf of every Progressive journalist that has ever lived on the glorious victory of the American Armed Forces over the Iraqi Army and securing a peace that can be maintained by the new democratically elected govermment of Iraq.
Have the parade in Manhattan on Labor Day Weekend and dump twenty tons of confetti on General Petraeus and give him the Medal of Honor and an Academy Award while you are at it. He deserves both.
I know Ms Shaw you are probably not like the rest of the paid hacks here you actually want to be a real journalist not just a button pusher for the right wing. You are probably young and idealistic so I’ll leave you with a little wisdom that cuts both ways no matter what side of the political divide you find yourself on.
If you are twenty and a conservative you may become very wealthy; if you are 40 and still a conservative you have sold your Soul.
Qu’ul cuda praedex nihil!
July 25th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Boy is Fredrick the most presumptuous and incorrect mooncalf.
Brilliant post Beth. GN-P1.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
The entire premise of this article is unfounded. As the mainstream media has reported, Obama did not visit the American military hospital in Germany because the Pentagon thought it would be viewed as a political trip. The rest of the article is just a bunch of whining over the fact that Obama can get a crowd of 200,000 while McCain is stuck stuttering in front of 200.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Herr Schwartz - wrong, wrong and wrong. Sorry. You are just wrong.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
AKA Strom - you are just listening to the final spin out of the Obama camp. He made a gaff - which, BTW, was consistent with his overall behavior of flipping off groups of ppl that he thinks won’t vote for him anyway. He ignored the issue at first. The troops are really VERY low on his priority list. They don’t say things that fit into his predetermined belief system.
He toured Berlin, canceled the visit to the troops and shortened his trip to France.
The Pentagon told him that he was welcome to visit Landstuhl just like any citizen would be, but could not politicize his visit. He decided not to go. What’s the point if he couldn’t take
Goebbelshis media staff?When it got more press than he anticipated he tried to blame the Pentagon and make it appear that it was he who didn’t want to politicize the visit. The problem is, if he didn’t want to politicize the event then he could have gone without taking his photogs.
He’s actually contradicting himself. He’s saying the Pentagon told him he couldn’t go. Then in the same paragraph he says he didn’t go because he didn’t want to politicize a visit to wounded soldiers. He also says that he thanked the soldiers in Afghanstan, kind of like he had already checked that dirty little job off his to-do list.
Come on. There’s a pattern in his behavior. It shouldn’t surprise anyone.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
obama did not visit the troops because he could not bring the press
“Chief Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed to Politico that Department of Defense officials cautioned Barack Obama’s campaign that his planned visit to wounded American troops in Germany could not be political in nature and that he would be barred from bringing along campaign staff and reporters. He also said that Cindy McCain recently requested to visit sailors aboard the U.S.N.S. Comfort and was denied.
“Sen. Obama is welcome to visit Landstuhl or any military hospital in his official capacity as a United States senator,” Morrell said in a brief interview. “But there is a DOD policy which governs campaigning and electioneering at military facilities that would have to be respected if he were to visit. That distinction was relayed and made clear to campaign, and they made a decision on their own based on that guidance.”
Morrell, in a subsequent interview, added that military officials told Obama he could only visit the military facility with his Secret Service detail and Senate staff.
“We made it clear to him that campaign staff and press would not be permitted to accompany him,” Morrell said of Obama. “We relayed those ground rules. They made a choice based upon the information we relayed to them. It was their choice. We had nothing to do with it.”
July 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Thanks McCain. I saw the GN
July 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
To all you mesmerized, Obama worshiping , butt kissing anti-America people, I have a question. Almost all of you hypocritical and God-less people have stated that while you don’t support the war, you 100% support our troops. You wish them well, want better care, blah, blah …and all your other canned and meaningless rhetoric spews forth from forked tongues whenever out Troops are mentioned.
My question is how, in the name of God or whatever you and the Obamassiah would rename Him, can you cast a vote for a person that doesn’t have the empathy of a half drunk piss-ant and refused to visit our injured Troops while on his whirlwind “look at me world” tour ? Obama’s people are saying the Pentagon said they couldn’t and that is a blatant lie. Obama’s camp was informed they couldn’t bring along the press for all the photo /op-ed pieces that Obamassiah wanted, so he chose to ignore our sicked and wounded Troops. If he couldn’tget something out of that visit to benefit him, then he would just take his ball and go home. WHY do you still want to vote for this pansy ? This coward ? This brazen, it’s all about me maniac that has already hired a transition team to move him and his to the WhiteHouse before the election has even been held ? Why would you want someone that arrogant , that pompous…someone that thinks the little people ( like our soldiers) aren’t worth his time ? WHY ? If any of you utter the words “I support our troops” and I support Obama, then you are a liar.
The men and women in those hospitals beds are there because they voluntarily chose to serve this country. Their wounded and broken bodies are the result of them defending people like YOU, that run your mouths and say nothing. They suffer because people like YOU, while demanding whatever ludicrous rights you want at the moment, fail to understand that those rights come with a price and there ain’t a one of you willing to pay it.
They do not complain, nor fault people like YOU. But I sure as hell do. I happen to have first hand knowledge of what people see when they visit our troops on a daily basis. People that visit because they actually care about other humans, and are not there for some photo op. My personal opinion is if any of you,including your Obamassiah visited our injured , you would vomit for about 3 days. Oddly, none of those that are there daily do that, though. They put on their big boy/girl britches, walk in, say hello, thank you, sit and talk with strangers…because it means something to those that have sacrificed so much. Then they leave, go home and cry while they pray.
You want a person that won’t give a wounded soldier the time of day in control of our country ? You liberal IQ challenged people are a real piece of work.
God help of us if this worthless and useless coward is ever put in office.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
According to Politico, Cindy McCain has a recent request to visit sailors aboard the USNS Comfort denied as well.
Anyone know why?
July 25th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I’m sure it’s just me - but the same folks who constantly downplay the casualties we’re suffering in Iraq and elsewhere are the same ones attacking Obama for not visiting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read threads on places like FreeRepublic arguing that our casualties in Iraq are no big deal because we suffered worse losses in WWII.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
You reporting is so biased and disengenuous. To suggest Mr. Obama “forgot” wounded solders is inflammatory and just outright a lie. He made a decision not to involve the wounded solders in the cat and mouse politicfal game fueled by an increasing frustrated Republican Party. Please try to put a little balance in your repoarting.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Michael, you are a liar and traitor to defend this worthless politician. Our Troops aren’t even an afterthought to the Obamassiah. They mean nothing to him. He will destroy our Military ( starting of course with the injureds morale )
Who ya gonna call to defend our nation then , huh ? 1.800.t.e.r.r.o.r.i.s.t ?
This evil person has shown again and again how much disdain he has for our Military.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
[ed - this comment was bulk mail spam placed on dozens of blogs. see comment policy.]
July 25th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Fred, you are full of it. What does Obama ignoring our Military have to do with your anti McCain rant ? And by the way, ya should know not to trust everything you read on the internet. It’s you liberal traitors making things up and posting as fact. Rosie O’Donnell does that a lot ,too. Maybe you should join that lying crowd.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
“ignoring our military?”
I could have sworn I just saw video of Obama in Afghanistan meeting with soliders and being wildly cheered. Maybe I imagined it?
Of course had Obama visited the troops, even without any campaign staff, there would have been a post here about how despicable Obama was in using the troops as a campaign prop.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
bob abouie - the meeting Obama had with the troops in Afghanistan that you are referring to was staged by the Obama campaign. The old media called him out on that. Apparently, all the media that followed him over there weren’t invited and they did that show behind the scenes with campaign ppl.
http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=1764
July 25th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Read Bob, read.
We are talking about “wounded” troops.
Also, he would of not been able to use the troops for campaigning because his entourage` and Katie Couric and gang were not to be allowed, said the pentagon
Plus, his staff gave two excuses to the media.
We didnt want it to be politicized.
When that didnt fly because he was told he could go alone.
He then said that the pentagon said he couldnt go.
Or the other way around. It doesnt matter.
Both excuses are BS
July 25th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
FYI: VoteVets.org notes that earlier this year McCain had a request to visit the Naval base in Pensacola, FL denied because the Pentagon considered it a campaign event. Now McCain claims he would never campaign at a military base.
There also appears to be some confusion of who told who what. The Pentagon has confirmed to TalkingPointsMemo.com that it denied Obama’s request to visit the airbase so long as Obama had campaign staff with him on the trip. Since the trip was paid for by his campaign, and he had campaign staff with him on the plane, he wouldn’t have been allowed to visit the base unless they made some sort of arrangement to have him land elsewhere, and obtain transportation to the base. He doesn’t have Senate staff with him on this trip.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
“According to Politico, Cindy McCain has a recent request to visit sailors aboard the USNS Comfort denied as well.
Anyone know why?”
she is not a senator or an elected official or a member of the military so is not allowed to go on the ship without special permission … which she did not ask for and the navy did not give.
actually technically even a senator or a military officer would need special permission, but it would be unusual to deny access to a senator.
you cannot even go on the USS constitution in boston harbor unless you have permission, which in the case of the constitution you can buy for the price of a ticket during certain times of the day.
it is not a cruise ship, you cannot just jump on a navy ship when you feel like it.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
“Since the trip was paid for by his campaign, and he had campaign staff with him on the plane, he wouldn’t have been allowed to visit the base unless they made some sort of arrangement to have him land elsewhere, and obtain transportation to the base.”
“obama: hey guys i’m sorry i have to go visit some of our wounded soldiers, but you can’t come … sorry.
campaign staff: but how will you get there?
obama: no problem, i am a senator, i get reimbursed for travel expenses like this. plus, i have a credit card and this is europe.
campaign staff: you’re right, it is a very easy thing to do. but you might be a little late to paris.
obama: i can travel quicker without the 300 staff and momumental problems of the press corps … besides what is more important the usa wounded, or a phot op in paris?”
well, i guess we know what senator obama thinks is more important
July 25th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
This is all a bunch of lies and disinformation, and not very good lies, at that. Just trash.
Look, why can’t we have some serious debate, instead of this garbage? Don’t you understand, Beth, that you lose credibility? You make it look like, you don’t really have any credible arguments in your opposition to Obama, so you resort to lies and disinformation. It will work with people with an IQ of 75 or less, maybe, but not with anyone else.
I guess your biggest problem is, you’re just not very good at it. Not like someone like, say, Rush Limbaugh. At least he can pull it off, all the disinformation and spin, but sadly, you just come off looking and sounding like an ass.
Whoever runs this site, do us a favor and stop putting up this crap. It is going to be a big, big decision in November, so why don’t we treat it like what it is, and have some serious debate?
I mean, there are a lot of people out there that are on the fence, I am sure, but this sort of thing is not going to convince anyone to vote for McCain. Sadly, it’s going to do just the opposite. Good thing for you that not many people look at it, but why should they? It’s just garbage anyway.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Ed, you call for some serious debate on the subject.
Say its a bunch of disinformation.
You bash Beth.
And yet you yourself add nothing to the debate.
You bring no controverting evidence or points to the subject at hand.
You are guilty of exactly what yer bitchin about.
Tell us.
Did the pentagon lie ?
Did the media get it right or wrong ?
Is Obama full of it ?
Is there something we are all missing ?
You say its all disinformation.
How could you know that unless you have the real scoop ?
So….
Please share.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
micky is right Edward. You say you want debate, but you add nothing to a debate. You just call names and accuse anyone who has opinions that don’t fit into your world view of lying.
Please, let me know where the lies are. They aren’t lies.
If you were seriously interested in the importance of this election and seriously interested in the best man/woman for the job being elected, then I’d think you’d want to know the truth rather than the spin.
If what I write is so unimportant and read by so few people that it doesn’t matter, then why are you so upset about it?
It upsets you because in your heart you know your man is being packaged and sold to the American people. Pretty pictures and long sanguine speeches don’t make a President.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I’m startin’ to think the best man for VP is Beth Shaw. She has a remarkable ability to clarify complex issues at a very deep level so that all can understand, whether high IQ or the disadvantaged voters who are the objects of liberal scorn.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
it’s all lies … lies i tell you …
the bush administration would not give obama the address to the hospital