A Canceled Obama Visit

NYTimes.com reported two days before the visit, Pentagon officials told the campaign that only Mr. Obama would be allowed inside the medical center in his capacity as a senator. The adviser who had intended to join Mr. Obama, Scott Gration, a retired major general in the Air Force, was told he could not go along because he was a volunteer campaign adviser.... If the story behind the story of the canceled troop visit has run its course, one question remains: Why didn’t Mr. Obama leave his aides behind, even the retired general, and make the visit by himself?

Because the idea of visiting the troops bored him. He wanted photo ops.

“Even him going alone would likely be characterized by some as a political event,”

And by not going he made it worse for himself.

Mr. Gibbs said in an interview on Monday, adding, “He decided not to put the troops in that position.”