Sensing he has seized upon a winning issue, John McCain stepped up his attack on Barack Obama Monday for canceling a visit to wounded U.S. troops at a hospital in Germany.

Two days after releasing a TV ad slamming Obama for scrubbing his visit the hospital at Ramstein Air Base, McCain's campaign arranged for a former patient of the hospital to pile on.

“I've spent time at Ramstein recovering from wounds received in the service of my country, and I'm sure that Senator Obama could have made no better use of his time than to meet with our men and women in uniform there,” said Michael Durant, whose Army helicopter was shot down over Somalia in the “Black Hawk Down” debacle. “That Barack Obama believes otherwise casts serious doubt on his judgment and calls into question his priorities.”

Obama adviser Greg Craig, who accompanied the candidate to Germany, said the McCain camp is “using the troops in a political fashion that's disgraceful.” Craig also ripped a McCain TV ad that accuses Obama of scrapping the planned troop visit after the “Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras.”

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“That ad is a dishonest and disreputable and dishonorable ad — it’s not worthy of Senator McCain,” Craig said. “If we had gone and seen the troops, he would have criticized us for politicizing and exploiting the troops for political advantage. We decided that was something we did not want to be criticized for.”

The Obama campaign has given shifting explanations for canceling the visit. At first, the Democrat said he decided against it to preclude accusations of politicizing the troops. But later, the campaign said it was barred from the visit by the Pentagon, a charge denied by the Pentagon and ridiculed by McCain.

“If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event,” McCain told ABC on Sunday. “He had the opportunity to go without the media.”

By continuing to hammer Obama over the controversy, McCain hopes to fuel questions about the Democrat's commitment to the military.

“This is red meat for the Republican base, and given their continuing doubts about McCain, this may help,” said Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

“It reinforces McCain's greatest strength — that he is ready to be commander in chief on day one — and it also reminds people of his prisoner-of-war biography.”

bsammon@dcexaminer.com