Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Barack Obama told Fox News on Saturday that it was not a mistake to cancel a planned visit to injured U.S. troops in Germany, even though Republicans are threatening to run commercials criticizing him for it.

“It was scheduled, we intended to go and we got wind that there was some concern that this might be perceived as political; because we were using campaign resources,” Obama said before leaving London to return to Chicago. “I didn’t want it to be a distraction.”

Fox’s Bill Hemmer asked Obama if it is a mistake to forgo the visit.

“Well no, not at all,” Obama said.

Also in London on Saturday, Obama told reporters that he scrapped the visit because he didn’t want the troops to be sorting through “whether this is political or not, or getting caught in the crossfire of the campaigns.”

Well, so much for that. Republicans say the episode may show up in advertising this fall, and are poking fun at the Obama’s campaign’s explanations for the decision.

The Republican National Committee gleefully e-mailed “Updated reasons why Obama nixed troop visit,” followed by, “Obama’s Ever-Evolving Excuses For Not Visiting The Troops.”

Here’s the explanation Obama gave on Saturday: “You know, the staff was working on this, so I don’t know everything. Here’s what I understand: We had [been] scheduled to visit. We had no problem at all leaving press — we always leave press and staff out, that’s why we left it off the schedule. We were treating it in the same way that we would have treated a visit to Walter Reed, which I was able to do quietly a few weeks ago, without any fanfare whatsoever.

“I was going to be accompanied by one of my advisers, a former military officer, and we got notice that he would be treated as a campaign person and it was therefore seen as political because he has endorsed my candidacy but he wasn’t on the Senate side. That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political, and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not, or getting caught in the crossfire of the campaigns.

“So rather than go forward and get potentially caught up in what might have been seen as a political controversy of some sort … we decided was that we would not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops. So that was really the extent of the story.”

Obama did, indeed, later telephone some of the soldiers.