More On McCain's False Attack Ad

This time from the Washington Post. The headline of the piece puts it, shall we say, diplomatically:

McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence

Another way of saying it's false (i.e. a lie). The WaPost begins:

For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.

The attacks are part of a newly aggressive McCain operation whose aim is to portray the Democratic presidential candidate as a craven politician more interested in his image than in ailing soldiers, a senior McCain adviser said. They come despite repeated pledges by the Republican that he will never question his rival's patriotism.

Note that last part. If we can't trust a candidate to keep his own pledge not to smear his oppo -- wait a minute, this is the guy who'd lie about his own POW experience in order to pander to Pennsylvania voters, so we can't expect much dignity from now on.

The WaPost has (lots) more:

The essence of McCain's allegation is that Obama planned to take a media entourage, including television cameras, to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his week-long foreign trip, and that he canceled the visit when he learned he could not do so. "I know that, according to reports, that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers," McCain said Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

A little bit down the page:

Asked repeatedly for the "reports," [McCain spokesman Tucker] Bounds provided three examples, none of which alleged that Obama had wanted to take members of the media to the hospital.

Caught in another lie.

Then there's this:

The McCain campaign has produced a television commercial that says that while in Germany, Obama "made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras." The commercial shows Obama shooting a basketball -- an event that happened earlier in the trip on a stopover in Kuwait, where the Democrat spoke to troops in a gym before grabbing a ball and taking a single shot. The military released the video footage.

Now THAT'S some chutzpah. The film the campaign they used was from the DoD!

Bottom line, there was never (NEVER) a plan to take the media to the hospital. Here's Obama himself:

"We got notice that [Gration] would be treated as a campaign person, and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn't on the Senate staff," Obama said. "That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political, and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not, or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns."

Obama's explanation, which came after more than a day of controversy, was the clearest in noting that it was Pentagon concerns about Gration accompanying him to the hospital that forced Obama to reconsider and, ultimately, cancel the visit.

Of course this won't satisfy the wingnuts who still believe that Senator Obama:

1. Is a secret Muslim
2. Was sworn into office with a Koran
   
3. Is connected to the Weather Underground
4. Won't recite the pledge of allegience
5. Refuses to wear a flag pin
6. Isn't a Christian
7. Isn't a US citizen
8. Is married to a woman who hates America
9. Isn't American enough.

There are still people who believe that the Earth is only a few thousand years old so we shouldn't be too surprised.