A Houston Chronicle Poll falsely claims that Barack Obama had a choice over the cancellation of a scheduled troop visit in Germany. The biased poll asks, "Did Barack Obama make a mistake by canceling his visit with U.S. troops in Germany?" The choices aren't any better. If one were to think it was a mistake to cancel the visit then you would choose "Yes. It was disrespectful and showed poor judgment." This biased poll is unacceptable and shows poor judgment by the Houston Chronicle.
It is not that the media does not know what caused the cancellation of the trip. ABC News, states, "The senator had decided to cancel visit out of concern that the campaign-funded trip might be seen as inappropriate. The decision was made only after the Pentagon advised the campaign that the trip would be viewed as a campaign stop." The Pentagon told The Washington Post that "political and campaign activity at military installations is restricted, [and] it welcomes all nonpolitical visits by U.S. senators." The Department of Defense has guidelines that must be abided by no matter where in the world it may occur. "We have longstanding Department of Defense policy in regards to political campaigns and elections," states Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Hibner. "We informed the Obama staff that he was more than welcome to visit as Senator Obama, with Senate staff. However, he could not conduct the visit with campaign staff."
Yet, it is unfortunate to see the Houston Chronicle fail so miserably on basic journalistic standards. They distorted and advanced false bias claims of the event. A quick Google search or following the latest News & Political developments would have cleared any confusion. Barack Obama made no mistake in canceling his visit. He did not cancel the visit, the Pentagon canceled the visit. It is bias to claim in the question that it was a "mistake" because it implies that the latter would not have been otherwise. The wording of the question and the affirmative answer are far from the objective position a newspaper should adhere to. There was nothing disrespectful or of poor judgment. The question should be, "Should The Pentagon have allowed the scheduled Obama visit with U.S. troops in Germany?" and the choices could have merely been yes or no.
To add insult to injury, the Houston Chronicle embedded a McCain advert that promotes the false claims as if they were a fact. It is a great example of McCain's poor judgment and lack of character (so much for the Straight Talk Express) to air a commerical that attempts to advance decieve its audience. Steve Benen claims that the ad is "demonstrably ridiculous and the most fundamentally dishonest campaign commercial of the cycle thus far." The advert makes the false accusation that Obama has not gone to Iraq in years yet Obama just visited Iraq last week before the ad was made. It was on his visit in Iraq that the Prime Minister of Iraq shocked the world by stating, "the Iraqi government hopes U.S. combat troops can go home by the end of 2010." It then makes the leap of faith by implying that Obama would rather go to the gym then visit with wounded troops. The advert states, "And now he [Obama] made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops." The ad concludes by stating that, "John McCain is always there for the troops." Using their flawed logic we can conclude that this is a lie since he can not always be "there" for the troops. While he is in the United States, he cannot be "there" for the troops when they are in Germany. See how easy it is to spin now take some notes from the Houston Chronicle and make it look like news.
