Obama Doesn't Visit Wounded Troops at Landstuhl

The Obama people's version is that the military made a last-minute reclassification of the Landstuhl visit as a campaign event; that, because of the ensuing sudden logistical complications, Obama chose to phone the wounded troops at Landstuhl; and that Obama had just visited wounded troops in Iraq.

I don't entirely buy this--my sense is that Obama could have gotten to Landstuhl if he'd really wanted to--, but IMO the situation is not as clearcut as some partisans on the right claim.

I don't know the net impact of this affair on independent voters. This independent voter thought the McCain campaign was hitting its stride with the media-loves-Obama ad (warning: some Web links to the video have been short-lived and this one may be too), but the stridency of Landstuhl criticism strikes me as a step backward.
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If the Republicans think they'll win this thing with negative campaigning, in all likelihood they are grievously mistaken. The 1988 election was won with negative GOP campaigning, but it followed a successful Republican Presidency.

Afterthought. So what should the Republicans have done? McCain, as quoted by Jack Risko, made a good start:

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.

This makes McCain's temper work for him: it implies that President McCain will not be maneuvered by ploys from bureaucrats and other players, but will be President. The McCain people should have contrasted that single statement with all the equivocations from the Obama campaign--but such points should be made with a rapier, not a bludgeon.