Kudos to Newsbusters for tracking this down.
John McCain and Barack Obama have been invited to participate in a townhall with the active duty military and their families on August 11. According to the organizers, only McCain has agreed to attend. What’s Obama’s excuse? Scheduling conflict:
Obama campaign spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said that while the senator has a scheduling conflict on Aug. 11, he “strongly supports” veterans and military families, and he has worked hard on their behalf in the Senate.
What’s he doing? Vacation in Hawaii August 8-15, with an “astounding” fundraiser on the 12th which is supposed to raise $500,000.
Did he learn nothing in Germany? Could he send a clearer signal to the troops about what he thinks about them?
Dan McLaughlin
Moe Lane
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
What a missed opportunity for Obama
blooch Tuesday, August 5th at 9:41AM EST (link)The Town hall meeting would ahve been a perfect opportunity to discuss his Green Vet Initiative:
“A new piece of Obama’s plan, described Wednesday, involves training veterans for jobs in industries devoted to renewable energy sources. Obama aides said they could not yet estimate the cost of his so-called Green Vet initiative.
‘To marshal [veterans'] talents in building a new energy economy, I want to launch an initiative to give our veterans the training they need to succeed in the green jobs of the future,’ Obama said. ‘It’s time to end our energy dependence at home so our national security isn’t held hostage to oil and gas from abroad.’”
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama3-2008jul03,0,1429144.story
“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”
It's not just the troops.
skorrent Tuesday, August 5th at 9:52AM EST (link)His handlers will do everything possible to minimize unscripted moments because he – Ah – just – Ah – sounds – Ah – so – Ah – freaking DUMB!
Way too risky
Commodore Tuesday, August 5th at 10:05AM EST (link)for a guy like Obama to do an unscripted town hall meeting with veterans. He is terrible off the teleprompter. He even stumbles when he is trying to remember stump speeches. I wouldn’t be suprised if he gets some kind of sophisticated earpiece in the future that feeds him lines (seriously).
No way he debates McCain until the big ones he can’t avoid.
Really Two Stories
Swamp_Yankee (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 10:10AM EST (link)Dissing the troops is the worse, but this story also begs the question – why in the hell is he taking a week off to go to Hawaii in the middle of August during a presidential race. Maybe we should thank Operation Chaos. Is the Obama who works out three times a day really that tired. C’mon, this is crunch time.
Maybe he's going to get a Birth Certificate
Loren Heal (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 10:16AM EST (link)$500K will buy a lot of paper.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
He has a shopping trip in Europe to rest from. (nt)
Neil Stevens (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 10:35AM EST (link)RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
Dick Morris Is Right About One Thing - The Real Way to Beat Obama Is on Policy
IJB Tuesday, August 5th at 10:38AM EST (link)Our side really needs to more widely publicize Obama’s loony, idiotic ideas like this one, and Obama’s mysterious new “civilian” (brownshirt) force that’s supposed to “supplement” the military.
Because once people get a real look at some of Obama’s policy prescriptions, they’ll be running for the doors.
Better for Obama to skip Town Hall
SZGOPSC Tuesday, August 5th at 10:41AM EST (link)If Obama skils this townhall, the GOP, Talk Radio, Conservative Blogs should pound extremely hard on it and maybe it will Percolate into the public consciousness.
Precisely
29Victor (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 11:26AM EST (link)I believe that this is the reason that he skipped out on the wounded soldiers in Germany too. He wasn’t allowed to bring a handler with him to make sure that he didn’t say anything stupid so his campaign wouldn’t let him go.
Obama’s campaign is keeping him on a really short leash right now. They have created an unrealistic image of him for public consumption and will do whatever it takes to protect that image. Whenever Obama speaks unscripted he gives the lie to that image.
"Townhalls- they interfere with my beauty sleep!" nt
streetwise (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 11:46AM EST (link)don't worry..
Pentagon16 (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 3:01PM EST (link)I have no doubt that if there is ONE thing the McCain campaign can do, it is to publicize amongst the Veterans community what Obama has been up to. I get a lot of emails from the Mccain Veterans’ groups..
“Small town folks get bitter after which they cling to guns or religion, or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment”- Barack Carter Obama
About this Townhall..
ashiv Tuesday, August 5th at 7:39PM EST (link)The woman who is running this townhall is an Iraq veterans wife. He is on tour in Iraq. She went public with Obama skipping it and was quoted in the newspaper. She said that the Obama campaign was stringing her along and she got the impression they were coming up with excuses and trying to run out the clock. Someone should contact her for an on the record quote.
I think this is pretty cut and dry...are you doubting her story?...n/t
Attack Mode (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 7:52PM EST (link)n/t
“Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper” Peter Griffin…Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
Steel-Belted Radial Right Winger
“I’ll create 5 million jobs from out of unicorn farts and pixie dust” Justatron paraphrasing Obamessiah…yes I love it that much.
Entirely a matter of priorities
David Hinz (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 8:05PM EST (link)and numbers. Face it, the all volunteer military and their families make up a very small voting block — and HEY! Not many of them were going to vote for him anyhow.
On the other hand, $500,000 will buy a lot of votes….errm campaign commercials.
The Minority Report — The HinzSight Report — TMRB.tv — MFOB “Miss Tagart, do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It’s resentment of another man’s achievement.”
Yeah, I would SO like to see The One
janis (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 8:09PM EST (link)trying to instruct a bunch of battle-hardened leathernecks in their new tree-hugging duties. Talk about a Kodak moment!
Money over Military
MImaninGA Tuesday, August 5th at 8:19PM EST (link)If Obama isn’t going to visit our wounded soldiers in a military hospital, does it really surprise anyone that he would skip this oppotrtunity to visit with our brave men and women and their families. Is this the person we want as our Commander in Chief? McCain is loyal to our country and to the military which is what we need while fighting a 2 front war.
I think you will find
blooch Tuesday, August 5th at 8:31PM EST (link)that if Obama is ever seriously questioned by the MSM on his Civilian National Security Force comment(unlikely), it will be made clear that what he meant by CNSF all along was the Green Vet Initiative, of course. This is likely why he included the “national security” boilerplate in reference to the GVI. Then he will say, with a hurt, somewhat bemused look, “I don’t understand why Republicans always want to twist my words like that.”
Just a guess, though; We’ll never know for sure, because the CNSF has already spun quietly down the drain, and it will soon be followed by the GVI.
“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”
Yeah the ones overseas anyways.
Mord (Diary) Tuesday, August 5th at 8:40PM EST (link)They seem to have SO much trouble getting ballots in the mail.
————————————–
“Republicans never win polls, they win elections,” – Rudy Giuliani
————————————–
I've got a friend who is
blooch Tuesday, August 5th at 10:53PM EST (link)an officer in the Army Reserve. His weekday gig is job-placement for discharged soldiers. I’m going to ask him what he thinks about Obama’s GVI when I see him next week.
“Lieutenant Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.”