It's amazing how a controversy with no meaning for the real issues in an election campaign can persist for days and days. Then again, we're in what journalists call the summer doldrums, and any spark of a tussle can fan the flames of public attention.

I write of course of the tiff over Barack Obama's non-visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany in July. You know the particulars by now: He canceled the visit. John McCain's campaign said that was because Obama couldn't bring the press with him. Obama said he was told by the DOD that a campaign aide could not accompany him and therefore he decided not to go alone, for fear of appearing to be using the visit for campaign points. McCain countered that it was never inappropriate to visit troops. And so on.

A good wrapup is this piece in The Washington Post. In addition to giving a comprehensive account of the controversy, it says the McCain charge that Obama was turned off by an inability to bring the press lacked evidence. 

That's another issue. Along comes a story in today's (Aug. 1) issue of Stars and Stripes quoting European Command officials as saying the press could have been present after all -- but only to photograph Obama entering and leaving the hospital. Other military guidance bars candidates from making "a campaign or election-related statement or to respond to a campaign or election-related media query."

Fair enough. But, why not permit the press to accompany a candidate inside the hospital? Not the entire crowd that follows the man, but at least a couple of pool reporters. Seems to me how the candidate acts and reacts in the presence of the wounded and suffering is worth knowing, and I'd rather have the press and not the candidate's helpers tell me that.