Fanatical Wrote:Hambone10 Wrote:The only difference between official and political is who paid for the car to get them there. That in no way impacts what you can and cannot do once you get there.
Unfortunately, where the money comes from does matter. If Obama had gone to the base then we would be hearing about how he used his campaign finances to visit military bases; making it a campaign event. Yes, he can visit as a Senator, but he would have to change who funded the planes, the cars, the meals, the lodging, etc to either himself, or the state. If any of that would be tied to his campaign finances, then he would not be able to go.
Yes, I hear all sorts of people (even Republicans) complaining that he went to Iraq and Afghanistan... [/sarcasm]
In fact, McCain had been complaining that he HADN'T gone... and NOBODY would have cared if he had spent his campaign money to do it...
Yes, people can complain about anything... whether it has merit or not... but as I said, who is paying for the trip has NO impact on what he can and cannot do on a military base. If you'll look, I was responding to WMD's postulate about visiting Walter Reed. This has nothing to do with whether he was in DC as a Senator, or taking his kids to see the Smithsonian. If he didn't know that he couldn't campaign on the base, then he absolutely proved that he doesn't know enough about the military to be CIC... and while I think he is inexperienced, he's not a moron.
As to the rest of your position... Much like planning ANY business trip, you have to have a legitimate business purpose in scheduling the event if you want to call it a business trip. What "business" purpose does the junior Senator from Illinois have in visiting Berlin? Now, if he were there to negotiate with BMW to bring a plant to Illinois, then fine... but otherwise?? and once again... he obviously KNEW it (going to France and Germany) was a campaign event a long time ago. As a member of the foriegn relations committee, the committee on veterans affairs and the Homeland Security committee.. he certainly has business in Iraq, Afghanistan and even Germany if he chooses to do that. But if his MAJOR event in Iraq had been a speech in Baghdad... It would NOT have been as a Senator, but as a candidate for President.
Either he thought that by visiting the base he could write off the trip (which I doubt given what they said earlier) and upon finding out that it wouldn't matter, they cancelled the visit...
or... they thought they could get some good pictures of him with the troops/injured and show him being "Presidential" but at the last minute, were told that even the military photographers would not take pictures of wounded soldiers (most likely in my mind), so they decided it wouldn't be worth the time...
or... they thought that they were getting more mileage out of the visits with foriegn leaders and/or needed to make up for some lost time (remember, they extended the Germany visit and cut France a bit short as well). Perhaps the lead-up to the speech took much longer than expected?? I don't know... but the excuses I'm getting don't hold water.
An HONEST answer might be... while I really wanted to visit with the troops, the security details of my speech in Berlin plus my scheduled visits with Merkel and (having a senior moment) The French President took longer than anticipated, and rather than embarass the country by standing up a foriegn dignitary, I decided to embarass myself and stand up the soldiers. Heck, he could have made himself look like a hero by planning a return trip JUST to Ramstien at his own expense. Sure, the right would complain, but it would be an example of Obama putting his country and his duty before himself... something I cannot see one example of him doing, while McCain has a career of it.
next??