could I get an opinion?

[Bill O'Neill]

Donna Halper wrote:
>
>> Dan wrote--
>>
>>  If he wanted a private moment, he wouldn't have invited the press.
>>
>
> People go to public religious shrines all the time, whether in the 
> Vatican or in Israel or in Lumbini (birthplace of the Buddha).  And 
> sometimes, photographers are there, or members of the media, if the 
> person making the visit is famous.  But I don't get any sense that he 
> invited the press to remove his private prayer from the wall and 
> publish it.  Dan, answer me honestly-- if this had happened to John 
> McCain, wouldn't you be a bit offended?  
I do question Obama's seeming pattern with and through the press.  The 
other 'controversy' involving Obama's last minute decision not to visit 
hospitalized US troops while in Germany was officially cited as out of 
deference for the privacy of the troops from the press.  The weak-link 
in that decision for me is that there were innumerable measures that his 
campaign could have taken (under the direction of the Dept. of Defense) 
to get the candidate there and back before anyone even knew he left.  
The smell-test comes to mind as a useful journalistic tool in the 
toolbox.  It's one that American media need to dust-off. 

Bill O'Neill