MSNBC's Buchanan falsely suggested Obama did not visit wounded troops, repeated smears of Obama's patriotism

After echoing smears long circulating in the conservative media about Sen. Barack Obama's patriotism, MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan asserted that a new political advertisement by Sen. John McCain attacking Obama for not visiting the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany played into "the sense that, you know, Barack is not one of us. He's just not a normal guy who would go see the wounded troops." Co-host Joe Scarborough replied: "And again, as the McCain campaign's saying, won't see the troops because -- and this is what the Pentagon said: We'll let him go see the troops, he just can't take cameras with him to film it." But contrary to Buchanan's suggestion that Obama would not "go see the wounded troops" and the McCain campaign's assertion, repeated by Scarborough, that he canceled his visit to Landstuhl because he couldn't "take cameras with him to film it," NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell reported on July 25 that while in Iraq, Obama "visited a casualty unit in the Green Zone, without photographers, as part of the congressional delegation." Neither Buchanan nor Scarborough mentioned Mitchell's report or noted that Obama has also reportedly visited wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

In addition, neither Buchanan nor Scarborough mentioned the response of Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass, who stated: "We told military officials explicitly that Senator Obama had absolutely no intention of bringing any members of the media or photographers in with him to visit the wounded warriors" at Landstuhl. Indeed, as ABC senior national correspondent Jake Tapper noted in a July 26 post on his blog Political Punch, "The McCain campaign provides no evidence for the assertion that being told he [Obama] couldn't bring media had anything to do with the trip's cancellation." Similarly, in a July 26 post on the Time blog Swampland, national political correspondent Karen Tumulty wrote that "[t]here is absolutely no evidence" for the ad's suggestion that "Obama cancelled the trip because he was told he couldn't bring the media."

Buchanan's comments came on the July 28 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe. After playing McCain's "Troop Funding" ad, Scarborough asked Buchanan to assess Obama's trip to Europe and the Middle East and "the long-term impact of the trip and this dustup." Buchanan asserted that although "the trip has been a tremendous help for Barack Obama on net," Obama "had problems on it, and the worst of them, I think, was this visit to the hospital." He elaborated: "Now, I think that's a vulnerability. There's -- because the real knock on Barack is that he's a guy that really is not all that patriotic. He's out on the left. He's out there with Reverend Wright. He doesn't like the flag pin. His missus is not all that proud of America. And this feeds right into his worst negative." Scarborough then said: "And you're not saying that all yourself. You're saying, though, that's the narrative that's been played against him, and this reinforces it," while Buchanan nodded in the affirmative.

From the July 28 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: Hey, Pat, what's the long-term impact of the trip and this dustup?

BUCHANAN: Well, of the trip -- I'm getting a little feedback here in the ear -- the impact of the trip I think has been excellent for Obama, in the sense that it's -- gee, I'm having a little trouble, because again --

SCARBOROUGH: Hey, that's Chris --

BUCHANAN: I'm listening to myself.

SCARBOROUGH: Chris --

MIKA BRZEZINSKI (co-host): Yeah, Chris Licht is trying to --

SCARBOROUGH: Chris read the end of your book, and he didn't like it. So, he's --

BRZEZINSKI: All right, let's fix his audio.

SCARBOROUGH: He's screwing around with you.

BRZEZINSKI: That's unacceptable. This is Patrick --

BUCHANAN: All right, I think it's fixed now.

SCARBOROUGH: OK. Go ahead.

BRZEZINSKI: OK. Go for it.

BUCHANAN: I think it's fixed now.

SCARBOROUGH: All right.

BUCHANAN: I think the trip has been a tremendous help for Barack Obama on net for this reason, Joe. What it's done is, it's put him on a world stage, and it's removed some of those doubts about him --

BRZEZINSKI: Yup.

BUCHANAN: -- that he can be a world leader, an American leader, and stand on a par with foreign leaders. The excellent reception he got -- I think that's a great help for him, and you see that in the polls. One of the downside of it is, it looks -- especially that Berlin thing -- it looks like people are trying to take this election out of the hands of the American people and basically crowning Barack Obama the leader --

BRZEZINSKI: Mm-hmm.

BUCHANAN: -- of the United States and the leader of the West before the election's been held.

SCARBOROUGH: Hey, Pat, let me ask you along those lines.

BUCHANAN: So I think you're gonna get a bit of backlash to that.

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. Let me ask you along those lines, Pat. If James Baker and [Michael] Deaver and whoever else were sitting around a table in the summer of 1980, and somebody said, "Hey, let's go to Berlin and give a speech. We may be able to get 200,000 people there," would you all have sent Reagan?

BUCHANAN: I don't think so then, no. Because you would not have known how that would come out. Barack had this thing wired up going in. He had to make the trip to Iraq, and I really credit his team with this, Joe. They were getting beat up for not having gone to Afghanistan in a long, long time, and same with Iraq, and so they made a virtue out of necessity, turned this necessary trip into something of an international sensation. So you really got to credit them for doing well. He had problems on it, and the worst of them, I think, was this visit to the hospital. Now, I think that's a vulnerability. There's -- because the real knock on Barack is that he's a guy that really is not all that patriotic. He's out on the left. He's out there with Reverend Wright. He doesn't like the flag pin. His missus is not all that proud of America. And this feeds right into his worst negative.

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. And you're saying that --

BUCHANAN: I think he should have, staff or no staff --

SCARBOROUGH: And you're not saying that all yourself. You're saying, though, that's the narrative that's been played against him, and this reinforces it. Do you think the McCain campaign, though, is just singing to the choir? Do you think he's just saying what people -- conservatives want to hear, or do you think this may have a real impact in swing states like Ohio, now Minnesota, Michigan, Florida?

BUCHANAN: I think that ad will have impact certainly in West Virginia and Kentucky and central Pennsylvania and other folks. Some people will say, "Aw, he's just playing the patriotism card. This is ridiculous." They'll agree with [Sen.] Chuck Hagel [R-NE], who says, "Cut this stuff out."

But I think Barack's staff -- whoever told him to skip this thing really made a blunder, because he dealt cards to the folks who are playing exactly this card because it is just about Barack's most vulnerable -- the sense that, you know, Barack is not one of us. He's just not a normal guy who would go see the wounded troops, and not be up there --

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.

BUCHANAN: -- hotdogging it in Berlin.

SCARBOROUGH: And again, as the McCain campaign's saying, won't see the troops because -- and this is what the Pentagon said: We'll let him go see the troops, he just can't take cameras with him to film it.