Obama Cancels Wounded Troop Visit

Senator Barack Obama cancelled a visit with wounded members of the armed forces at a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs disclosed the campaign had been planning for weeks a visit to the hospital.

However, the Pentagon expressed concerns that the visit would be exploiting the wounded troops for political purposes by the Obama campaign.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Obama was told he could go to Landstuhl, but the visit would have to conform to Defense Department guidelines that forbids any political activity on a military installation. That meant campaign staff would have been barred from accompanying him, he said.

Whitman also said, "The Pentagon certainly did not tell the senator he could not visit Landstuhl."

This then became a controversy as the Obama campaign issued two statements on Thursaday. Gibbs said in the first that Obama "decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign."

Then a few hours later, the campaign issued another statement in the name of retired Gen. Scott Gration, an adviser to Obama, that mentioned the Pentagon's involvement.

Senator McCain, for his part, said that Obama made a mistake in cancelling his visit and said that visits with wounded troops are never "inappropriate."

The reason Obama backed out was that he did want to make this a campaign event and backed out after the Pentagon objected.