Obama Stages an ‘Unscheduled’ Visit With 3 Veterans in Portland

What a guy that Barack Obama is, we would be led to believe. Taking time out of his busy golfing schedule to campaign for Millions of dollars in donations across the country and when visiting Portland, Oregon yesterday, July 24, 2012, just happened to stop at a little out of the way Breakfast Restaurant for a quick bite while on his way to lunch and just happened to run into and sit down with 3 Veterans who also just happened to be in the restaurant for the very first time, it turns out.

Pool photos/Getty

All just by coincidence, we are supposed to believe.

Ignore that wherever a President intends to visit, it inspected days in advance by agents of the Secret Service who also sweep the place moments before they enter and hold everybody there once he arrives until he leaves.

No, just ignore all of the Standard Operating Procedures to believe that Obama, trying desperately to appear like just a regular guy, as his poll numbers amongst Veterans continues sliding, just happened to stumble into such a prime setting to counter challenger Mitt Romney’s speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Reno, Nevada.

Television, radio and print media were all a gushing over Obama’s happenchance meeting Tuesday with the 3 Vets he coincidentally ran into at Portland’s Gateway Breakfast House on Halsey.

But, a closer look shows it probably was not so coincidental after all.

As reported in the Obama Foodorama Blog, Los Angeles Times, Tribune Washington Bureau pool reporter Michael Memoli was supplied bios of the 3 Veterans by the Obama campaign in the pool report.

-Dean Dilley from Portland
Dean enlisted in the U.S. Army 1972 when he was 20 years old. He served for three years, from 1972-1975 as a supply specialist. He retired from American Honda Motor Company in 2009, where he worked as a stock and material handler and is currently a volunteer for Obama for America.

Dean says that health care is the issue that is most important to him, particularly as he is getting older. He is also focused on veterans-related issues and says he is grateful for the President’s commitment to supporting veterans like himself.

-Mark Peterson from Portland
Mark is a retired veteran. He served in the Air Force and Air National Guard for 27 years, from 1966 – 1993. In the Air Force, he was rated as a Navigator and flew B-52s as an Electronic Warfare Officer and in the Air National Guard he was a Weapons System Officer in F-4s and F-101s. Following his service he worked as a CPA, and retired around 2006.

Mark is focused on health care and foreign policy. He is thankful for his military benefits and Medicare coverage, but as the father of two disabled children, he knows a lot of people who have had problems with coverage, so he knows how important it is to have access to quality, affordable health care.

-Thomas Foeller from Oak Grove
Tom is a retired Vietnam War era veteran. He enlisted in the Navy Reserves in 1967 during his junior year at Portland State University because he wanted to serve his country. He left the Navy Reserves as a lieutenant in 1976. He served for a total of nine years; four of those were active duty. He was a member of the Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit and spent six months stationed in Japan, then six months in Guam while on call to deploy to Vietnam. His unit never received the call to deploy.

Tom retried from a career in the housing industry six years ago. At the time of his retirement, Tom was diagnosed with stage III rectal cancer, during a routine physical. He believes that had the Affordable Care Act – and the emphasis on preventative care – been in place a decade or two ago, he would have caught his cancer earlier and could have saved tens of thousands of dollars in healthcare costs.

So much for Obama’s “coincidental,” just happened to stop in an out of the way little place and stumble across 3 Veterans eager to discuss healthcare with him.

Of particular interest, Dean Dilley just “coincidentally” happens to be a “volunteer” with Obama for America.

The lady who served their table admitted she had never seen the Veterans in there before in a live interview mid-afternoon, indicating they were not regulars.

But we are to believe this was all just a coincidental meeting, unscheduled and just happened to unfold, unplanned.

Yeah, right. I just fell off of the turnip truck too.

Sorry Obama, but we Veterans are not so easily manipulated and fooled.

UPDATE: Two of the Veterans, Thomas Foeller and Dean Dilley, the Obama for America volunteer had agreed to an interview on a local talk show, but cancelled telling the shows producer that someone from the Obama Campaign would be in touch with them. Hmmmmmmm.