“The senator 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,” Gibbs said.

Senator Obama skipped a meeting with wounded troops in Germany saying it would be “inappropriate” to do so during the campaign portion of the trip “out of respect” for the troops. In response:

John McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, “Barack Obama is wrong. It is never inappropriate to visit our men and women in the military.”

McCain’s Senate colleague Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., also took a shot at Obama.

“I noticed that Obama had plenty of time to shoot hoops … but he didn’t have the time to stop by (the Ramstein base),” he told FOX News.

How would it be any more inappropriate than meeting with government leaders while openly bashing the current administrations foreign policy and hinting that they would be better off working with him than the sitting President of the United States?

I first began thinking about largely ignoring the Obama trip overseas when the Senator decided to announce his plan for Iraq and Afghanistan before leaving. Heading to the Middle East under the guise of a “fact finding mission” it was clear the Senator wasn’t really out to find anything in those nations other than anything to reinforce his world view. As I watched Obama state his objectives I wondered, “how can you announce your strategy JUST BEFORE you see the battleground? Without listening to the generals and the troops on the ground? Isn’t this the same charge given by Democrats against Bush for so many years?”

As Obama landed in Afghanistan only to announce, after his short stay, that the nation needed more troops, the media began its onslaught of hype and I began tuning out. With no clear reflection on how he would secure those NATO forces to maintain the operation in Afghanistan, he simply echoed statements made by Bush and McCain many moons before and gave little in the way of insight or innovation. Still the press swooned.

There is little that is actually newsworthy about Obama’s visit to the Middle East or Europe. All we have is a media moment, finely crafted by a campaign that holds the media so effortlessly in its tight grasp. So far there is little in the news of policy, little insight, little more than tightly controlled press events that are nice theater but have little substance. There is nothing that addresses the reality on the ground in either battlefield and nothing that addresses our problems here at home.

Instead we are treated to the media swooning over a candidate who has purposely done everything he can do to foster the images of Kennedy and Reagan, to tee up the imagery for the press so they can write hyperbole while filling in the miles of blanks that separate history from hype.

I don’t mean to disparage Obama personally. It is the job of a campaign to manipulate the press, to control the image and do everything it can to push its point of view. It is not, however, the job of the media to give in and simply sit back to broadcast the show. It is the job of the fourth estate to ask questions, to demand more of politicians than a few staged shows. It was clear weeks ago that wasn’t going to happen on this trip. Instead we would just get the pretty pictures, the cute stories and the campaign credo.

If and when news breaks on this trip, I will note it here. Increasingly though I have come to the conclusion that it is not the job of this site or any of the media to simply tow the line of either party or campaign or to just sit back and report on the bickering, the soundbytes and the fake outrage. It didn’t work for this nation in getting us into Iraq and it won’t work for us in winning the War. We need to do better, to think harder and to tear down the nice imagery in order to get to the gritty truth.

So, maybe we should get started on that…

The Obama campaign is calling the latest cover of the New Yorker “tasteless and offensive”. The cover takes all of the right wing Internet smear campaigns and combines them in an image depicting Barack Obama as Osama bin Laden giving a high five to a black militant Michelle Obama in the oval office as a flag burns in the fireplace.

Official Statement:

“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said: “We completely agree with the Obama campaign.”

Huffington Post has more on the image by Barry Blitt called ‘the Politics of Fear’

I just watched a half an hour of campaign surrogates Carly Fiorina and Senator Claire McCaskill debating their candidates plans on Meet the Press. After a half an hour the final conclusions I came to were these:

1) Neither candidate is willing to come out on a firm position on almost anything.
2) Neither candidate has an economic plan that adds up to solving our problems.
3) This election looks and sounds almost exactly like every other one for the past few cycles.

Call me a curmudgeon but for over a year I have been skeptical about this tidal wave of “change” and “reform” that has been touted by both of these candidates but especially Obama. Through the sheer for of their wills is how we are told they will change the system. Yet here we are in what is obviously the general election campaign, forget waiting until the conventions, and I see two candidates and their surrogates who look, sound and feel just like any other.

Senator Jim Webb who was heavily rumored (media wished for?) on the Obama Vice Presidential list has taken his name off the list saying, “Last week I communicated to Senator Obama and his presidential campaign my firm intention to remain in the United States Senate, where I believe I am best equipped to serve the people of Virginia and this country. Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for Vice President.”

Marc Ambinder shed some light saying that last week reporting that Webb communicated his intentions after Obama’s VP search committee asked for information to begin the vetting process. Sources reportedly say Webb did not want to relive the process so soon after getting elected.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday Senator Obama toured the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters yesterday. The tour included information on how “command has assisted with floods, California wildfires, hurricanes as well as their role abroad.” Read the pool report below:

July 2, 2008

Senator Barack Obama arrived at Peterson Air Force Base outside of Colorado Springs, where he spent nearly two hours on a private afternoon tour of the facility and briefings from military leaders.

Your pool was escorted to a separate building at Air Force Space Command and did not see him for the entirety of his visit. It was billed as an official Senate visit, with one member of his Senate staff on hand to participate in the briefings.

General Victor E. Renuart, the commander of NORAD and the United States Northern Command, greeted Mr. Obama and led him on the tour and briefing, which included how the command has assisted with floods, California wildfires, hurricanes as well as their role abroad.

Your pool was given no additional information.

Then, Mr. Obama headed to the Air Force Academy for more private meetings. He is scheduled to speak at a campaign fundraiser at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. A pool report with his remarks will be expedited after that event.

ABC News notes that Senator Obama, who launched an ad yesterday in support of welfare reform how suck legislation slashed rolls by 80%. However on May 31, 1997 on the floor of the Illinois Senate Obama declared that he was “not a defender of the status quo with respect to welfare. Having said that, I probably would not have supported the federal legislation, because I think it had some problems”

Obama’s transformation from opponent to champion of welfare reform is the latest in a series of moves to the center. Since capturing the Democratic nomination, Obama has altered his stances on Social Security taxes, meeting with rogue leaders without preconditions, and the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.’s, sweeping gun ban.

The shift in Obama’s rhetoric on welfare reform has proceeded in stages. When Clinton was poised to sign welfare reform while running for re-election in 1996, Obama called it “disturbing.” A decade later, as an underdog running for president against Clinton’s wife, he spent 2007 avoiding the subject. By the time Obama emerged as the Democratic frontrunner in the spring of 2008, he began leaving the impression that he was for it all along.

During a 1996 interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Obama could not conceal his disappointment in his fellow Democrat. “Bill Clinton? Well, his campaign’s fascinating to a student of politics. It’s disturbing to someone who cares about certain issues. But politically, it seems to be working,” said Obama.

The shift is not surprising as the article notes “Obama has altered his stances on Social Security taxes, meeting with rogue leaders without preconditions, and the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.’s, sweeping gun ban” since winning the nomination. As is typical of a presidential contender Obama is moving to the middle, abandoning positions he held to win more liberal votes in the nomination. The article also notes Obama has on several occasions during the campaign to specifically address the position, waiting until now to unveil his support.

It does stand in stark contrast to Obama’s calls for an end of “Politics as usual” in Washington and the contention of his supporters that their candidate was not one to waver or play politics with the problems facing our nation.

The Obama ad entitled “Dignity”

A rather interesting though lightly sourced article from the Telegraph asserting that President Clinton told insiders Obama would have to “kiss my ass” for support. Reports have been coming out that Clinton had dodged Obama’s phone call attempts and is reportedly still in “rage” mode over the election but if the report is true it paints a very interesting picture of a former President who appears to be unhinged and very angry.

Senator Barack Obama will head to “France, Germany, Israel, Jordan and the United Kingdom where he will consult with the leaders of those nations about common challenges like terrorism, nuclear proliferation and climate change.”

No dates have been given for security reasons.

Potential that this trip will be combined with plans to visit Afghanistan and Iraq.

First the first time since 1791, the Supreme Court has made a ruling conclusively interpreting the rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the Constitution. District of Columbia v. Heller, challenged a 32-year-old-ban on handgun ownership in the nations capital city and put a new twist to the debate on whether the amendment should be interpreted solely as the right to create “well regulated militias” or whether it allowed for individual gun ownership without restriction.

The 5-4 decision fell along ideological lines with Antonin Scalia writing the majority opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

Dick Anthony Heller is an armed security guard who sued the District after rejecting his application to keep a handgun at his home for protection. The U.S. Court of Appeals had ruled in Hellar’s favor stating that an individual’s right to own arms was obstructed by a total ban on handguns.

In addition to striking down D.C.’s handgun ban the ruling also lifted the restriction that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled. Scalia did say in his opinion that the ruling should not “cast doubt on long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons or the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.”

Similar gun laws will now be challenged across the country and it is unlikely that this will be the final say between those debating the interpretation of the Second Amendment and the extent to which gun control can be carried out by cities, states and the federal government.

“Today’s decision is a landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the United States. For this first time in the history of our Republic, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was and is an individual right as intended by our Founding Fathers. I applaud this decision as well as the overturning of the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns and limitations on the ability to use firearms for self-defense.

“Unlike Senator Obama, who refused to join me in signing a bipartisan amicus brief, I was pleased to express my support and call for the ruling issued today. Today’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller makes clear that other municipalities like Chicago that have banned handguns have infringed on the constitutional rights of Americans. Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today’s ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right — sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly.

“This ruling does not mark the end of our struggle against those who seek to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens. We must always remain vigilant in defense of our freedoms. But today, the Supreme Court ended forever the specious argument that the Second Amendment did not confer an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Meanwhile in light of the decision the Obama campaign is attempting to reverse course on a statement given to the Chicago Tribune last year which suggested he supported the ban. The campaign now says those comments were “inartful”.

But the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said that he “believes that we can recognize and respect the rights of law-abiding gun owners and the right of local communities to enact common sense laws to combat violence and save lives. Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional.”

From ABC News:

The Chicago Tribune clip from Nov. 20, 2007, is an inaccurate representation of Obama’s views, according to Burton, because the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has refrained from developing a position on whether the D.C. gun law runs afoul of the Second Amendment.

When Obama has been asked on multiple occasions to weigh in on the D.C. gun case he has regularly maintained that the Second Amendment provides an individual right while at the same time saying that right is not absolute and that the Constitution does not prevent local governments from enacting what Obama calls “common sense laws.”

Although he has been willing to describe his general views on this topic, Obama has sidestepped the question of whether the ban in the nation’s capital runs afoul of the Second Amendment.

Today the Obama campaign has released the following statement on the Court’s decision:

I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures. The Supreme Court has now endorsed that view, and while it ruled that the D.C. gun ban went too far, Justice Scalia himself acknowledged that this right is not absolute and subject to reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe. Today’s ruling, the first clear statement on this issue in 127 years, will provide much-needed guidance to local jurisdictions across the country.

As President, I will uphold the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun-owners, hunters, and sportsmen. I know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne. We can work together to enact common-sense laws, like closing the gun show loophole and improving our background check system, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals. Today’s decision reinforces that if we act responsibly, we can both protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe.