Obama in Germany (MORE: EXCUSE GIVEN FOR CANCELLATION)

A speech in front of thousands of smiling Germans? Yes. Traveling to Paris for a pit stop on Friday?  Still on.  Visiting US military bases in Rammstein and Landstuhl? Cancelled.  Ed Morrissey is following developments.

I guess Obama’s had enough troop photo ops in Afghanistan and Iraq and figures he doesn’t need anymore. 

Will we later see pictures/vids of Obama campaign banners draped around the Victory Column?  Stay tuned …

PM Update – 2:41 PM:  This is unreal:

According to Spiegel Online, which is tracking Obama’s every move, at 1:42 p.m. it learned that “Obama has cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The visits were planned for Friday.”

Thanks to a statement from senior adviser Robert Gibbs, the issue seems to be one of ethics and propriety, rather than time.

“During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Senator Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops,” Gibbs said. “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.”

Today, however, Obama, just like George W. Bush in the 2000 election, managed to squeeze in some workout time despite a heavy schedule leading up to his big speech at the Siegessäule, or Victory Column, around 7 p.m. Berlin time.

Part of a trip “funded by the campaign”? Huh?  I thought he said was going overseas as a Senator, not a presidential candidate?  We already knew that claim was bogus.  This lame excuse for cancelling the visit with US troops in Germany pretty much confirms it.