TPM Tries To Spin Obama Out of His Wounded Troop Snub Predicament

Talking Points Memo believes it has found an out for Senator Obama's snub of wounded soldiers in Germany...

A Pentagon spokesperson confirms to me that because of longstanding Department of Defense regulations, Pentagon officials told Obama aides that he couldn't visit the base with campaign staff. This left Obama with little choice but to cancel the trip, since the plan to visit with campaign aides had been in the works for weeks.

The Obama campaign yesterday announced that it had decided to cancel the visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, saying that it would be "inappropriate" to make such a visit as part of a campaign trip.

Couldn't he have said, 'You guys wait right here, and I'll be back in a little bit.' Is Senator Obama really incapable of going into an military hospital without an entourage? Why couldn't he simply go with his security detail and driver, and let his campaign staff work out at the Ritz Carlton gym? This reasoning may sound better than, 'Senator Obama doesn't do anything without a camera on him'; but if this statement is to be taken at face value then Senator Obama and his staff have just confessed to being logistically inept.