Obama declines to campaign in Da Hood?

The Senator regrets, etc.:

“Senator Obama strongly supports America’s veterans and military families and has worked hard on their behalf in the Senate,” said Phillip Carter, director of Mr. Obama’s veterans effort and an Iraq war veteran. “While we unfortunately had a previously scheduled commitment on the date proposed, Senator Obama looks forward to continuing the dialogue he’s been having throughout the country with veterans on how we can better serve our men and women in uniform as they serve us.”

Carissa Picard, managing director of the Fort Hood Presidential Town Hall Consortium, said she had suggested Aug. 11 and asked the campaign to suggest other dates if that was not convenient, but after several conversations she had not been able to work anything out.

“I’m having extreme difficulty getting the Obama campaign to commit to this event, and we do not understand why,” said Ms. Picard, whose husband is deployed in Iraq. “We made it very clear to them that if they would commit to the event, we would work with them on dates.”

The organizers released details about the event in hopes that it would pressure the Obama campaign to agree to the event.

Unless you're at a Dick Cheney appearance in Baluud, you'll probably find a large number of "undecideds", and an equal split between Obama and McCain supporters in the military community.

Republicans would do well not to overly hype the potential no-show as a demonstration of Obama's disregard for the troops; McCain himself was one of two Senators absent when the new GI Bill passed (even though it contained compromises he pushed for that made it even better than the original pure Webb version) thus leaving himsef wide open to counter attack.

Errata:

Long time milblogger (the original Intel Dump was one of the first blogs in the ring) Phil Carter now blogs at the Washington Post - a fact the NY Times reporter missed. ;)

Of course, Phil's wapo profile doesn't mention his Obama campaign position, either. Such things are rarely updated at the frequency they should be.