The spin coming from the Obama campaign yesterday over his cancelled visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases is that it would be innapropriate to use a U.S. Military facility as a campaign backdrop.

Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs told ABC News in a statement, "During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Sen. Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops. For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign."

“We learned from the Pentagon last night that the visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event,” Gration said. “Sen. Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event when his visit was to show his appreciation for our troops and decided instead not to go.”

Of course if that were the real reason for his cancelled trip, it would be somewhat admirable that he decided against using wounded soldiers as a means to propel his campaign. The truth however is that the U.S. Military has strict guidelines preventing candidates from using military facilities as campaign backdrops.

One military official who was working on the Obama visit said because political candidates are prohibited from using military installations as campaign backdrops, Obama's representatives were told, "he could only bring two or three of his Senate staff member, no campaign officials or workers." In addition, "Obama could not bring any media. Only military photographers would be permitted to record Obama's visit."

The official said "We didn't know why" the request to visit the wounded troops was withdrawn. "He (Obama) was more than welcome. We were all ready for him."

As Ed Morrissey notes:

This makes the decision track very clear. Obama and his team set up the visits to military installations before going overseas. After seeing how the media got excluded in Iraq and Afghanistan, they decided it wasn't worth traveling to Ramstein and Landstuhl to visit the severely wounded troops because they couldn't bring the campaign and get the photo ops they wanted. Instead, Obama went shopping in Berlin.

It is apparent the trip was cancelled not because Obama was worried that he would be perceived as using the soldiers to further his campaign, the trip was cancelled when it was learned he could not use the soldiers for that purpose. Instead, Senator Obama went shopping.

Update:Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said that that Pentagon notified Obama military advisor Scott Gration only yesterday or the day before that he should not come.

The Pentagon “viewed this as a campaign event and therefore they said he should not come,” Axelrod said. Obama has been at the base in previous overseas trips. He visited with troops–even played basketball–when he touched down in Kuwait during the Iraq and Afghanistan leg of his swing.

This had lead to ridiculous rumors that McCain or one of his surrogates contacted the Pentagon and asked them to cancel Obama’s visit.

A DoD Spokesman has a different recollection of the events:

Chief Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell confirmed to Politico that Department of Defense officials cautioned Barack Obama’s campaign that his planned visit to wounded American troops in Germany could not be political in nature and that he would be barred from bringing along campaign staff and reporters. He also said that Cindy McCain recently requested to visit sailors aboard the U.S.N.S. Comfort and was denied.

“Sen. Obama is welcome to visit Landstuhl or any military hospital in his official capacity as a United States senator,” Morrell said in a brief interview. “But there is a DoD policy which governs campaigning and electioneering at military facilities that would have to be respected if he were to visit. That distinction was relayed and made clear to campaign, and they made a decision on their own based on that guidance.”

Morrell, in a subsequent interview, added that military officials told Obama he could only visit the military facility with his Secret Service detail and Senate staff.

“We made it clear to him that campaign staff and press would not be permitted to accompany him,” Morrell said of Obama. “We relayed those ground rules. They made a choice based upon the information we relayed to them. It was their choice. We had nothing to do with it.”

Barack Obama has decided that without his entourage of fawning reporters there to document his trip and take handshake photos of him, visiting the wounded soldiers was no longer a priority.

Update 2 Lest anyone believe the rules were recently changed in order to deprive Obama his moment in the spotlight with the wounded soldiers, here is a flashback to April of this year:

Candidates for office have long been prohibited from engaging in political activities at U.S. military installations or using U.S. military personnel in their political appearances. Presidential campaign staffs generally are very familiar with these military rules.

With Department of Defense rules prohibiting political campaigning on military bases, it was determined that in some cases McCain could visit the installations as a senator but could not engage in any political activity or have news media present.

The military spokesman points out that any U.S. senator could also request to visit the academy or any military installation.

But the Navy declined a McCain campaign request to speak at the Naval Aviation Museum at the naval base in Pensacola, Florida, because it is a military owned installation and is located on the base, the official said.

This highlights the point made earlier, Obama would have been welcome at the military base as a United States Senator, but unwelcome as a Presidential candidate.

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Election 2008, Features, Iraq, Politics, President Obama