The excuse the Barack Obama camp has come up with for not visiting the troops in Germany ranks up there with “The German Shepherd ate my homework.” Robert Gibbs explains: “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.” Yeah, that’ll fly.

It is okay to meet with foreign leaders, okay to use troops for props in Afghanistan, and okay to speak to tens of thousands of foreigners as part of his Magical Mystery Tour, but he wouldn’t use campaign funds (remember, these are private funds) to visit soldiers. On what planet does this make sense? Will he be avoiding all military installations at home? (Maybe so!)

I would put money on this: there are more undecided voters who will be annoyed at disregard for the troops than who will be impressed with Obama’s campaign speech in Berlin. He really isn’t running for president of the “world,” and when he forgets that, it is a problem for him. Even his friends in the blogosphere are fretting about that.