Pentagon officials tell NBC
the problem was that Obama's request to visit Landstuhl included two members of his campaign staff -- retired Major General Jonathan S. Gration and Jeff Kiernan. US military officials in Germany informed the campaign the two political operatives would not be permitted on base.
Pentagon officials say Gration was the campaign's point of contact at Landstuhl in arranging Obama's visit and "got torqued" when he was told he would not be permitted to join Obama. It was Gration who later suggested to reporters that the Pentagon short-circuited Obama's visit.
Jim Geraghty wrote yesterday: "A very interesting email from a source I must protect suggests that Obama's visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center had the green light until a campaign staffer raised a stink about going with Obama."
And today Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs strongly hinted that Gration's exclusion was what led to the campaign's last-minute decision to scrap the visit.
"Based on the information that we received from the Pentagon," Gibbs said, "anybody on the staff that was related to the campaign including General Gration a two start [sic] general" would not be allowed to go to Landstuhl.
So it seems likely that Obama's choice was very simple: He could have left behind Gration and visited wounded troops or cancel his visit so as not to offend the general's ego.
