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Washington: Republican John McCain's campaign castigated Democratic rival Barack Obama for calling off a visit to wounded troops in Germany, contending Obama chose foreign leaders and cheering Europeans over "injured American heroes".
Obama's campaign called the accusation "wildly inappropriate" on Saturday as the Illinois senator returned to the United States.
His spokesman has claimed that the visit to a military hospital in Germany was scrapped after the Pentagon raised concerns about political activity on a military base. Earlier, though, the campaign had said Obama decided the visit might be seen as inappropriate politicking. However, the Pentagon said the senator was never told not to visit.
Economic issues are again expected to dominate the campaign in the United States. Obama had a campaign speech scheduled yesterday to a national convention of minority journalists on his home turf of Chicago.
Dare
McCain virtually dared Obama to make the overseas trip during earlier campaigning, claiming that his rival was naive on foreign policy and national security and pointing out that Obama wanted to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months of his presidency even though he had not been to Iraq since January 2006.
But McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, struggled to get the media spotlight in a week in which Obama visited Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Europe, as he tried to reassure American voters that he can handle international politics and mend relations with key allies frustrated with eight years of Bush.
A new McCain ad that began airing on Saturday in selected markets also chides Obama as disrespectful for making "time to go to the gym" during his European visit while at the same time cancelling the visit with wounded troops.
"Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras," according to the ad, which is being televised in Colorado, Pennsylvania and the Washington D.C. area. "John McCain is always there for our troops."
Left out
McCain himself joined in the rebuke, saying in an interview to be aired yesterday by ABC's This Week that "if I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event".
Responding, Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said Obama and McCain both believed that troops should be honoured and noted that Obama had visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan last week and had made numerous trips to Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Obama still didn't want injured soldiers "pulled into the back-and-forth of a political campaign", Vietor said in a statement.
McCain took a swipe at his rival in his weekly radio address. "With all the breathless coverage from abroad, and with Senator Obama now addressing his speeches to the people of the world, I'm starting to feel a little left out. Maybe you are too," he said.
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