Obama's world tour is a low-risk media sensation--and John McCain has only himself to blame for it

The Amazingly Superficial Race by Noam Scheiber
Barack Obama's world tour is a low-risk media sensation--and John McCain has only himself to blame for it.
Post Date Monday, July 21, 2008



So is Barack Obama's foreign trip this week a critical addition to his presidential résumé? Or is it a farce? You'd never know from listening to the GOP. Late this spring, Republicans delighted in bashing Obama for his two-plus year absence from Iraq--the implication being that Obama wouldn't merit a Situation Room seat until he'd boarded a trans-Atlantic flight. But, as Obama's itinerary has taken shape in recent weeks, suddenly the McCain campaign has soured on the idea. On Thursday, McCain spokesperson Jill Hazelbacker complained that Obama's trip would be a "first-of-its-kind campaign rally overseas." McCain himself finally settled on a tentative compromise: Obama's stops in Iraq and Afghanistan would be kosher. But, "What Senator Obama does in the other countries, whether political rallies or not, obviously would then give them a political flavor to say the least." Got that?

It is, of course, hard to not to notice that the McCainiacs had been playing a bit of politics themselves, dwelling on Obama's lightly-used passport as evidence of his inexperience. Except that the politics abruptly changed when the Obamanauts called their bluff--and took every cameraman in the Amtrak corridor along for the ride. Somehow it didn't occur to the McCainiacs until too late that an Obama world tour might become the media event of the season. "{I}t certainly hasn't escaped us that the three network newscasts will originate from stops on Obama's trip," Hazelbaker sniffed to The New York Times last week. :cry:

Team McCain has a point. This past week has brought endless chatter about all the potential pitfalls and opportunities Obama faces. For the life of me, I'm having trouble identifying the former. Yes, a gaffe would be damaging amid all the glare. But so much more damaging than a gaffe at home? It's not like Obama's comments on the campaign trail don't already attract incredible scrutiny here and abroad. (The media, desperate to justify its saturation coverage, has taken pains to overdramatize the trip, with mixed results. As an example of the risks Obama may encounter abroad, USA Today dusted off his controversial comments about Jerusalem in June--comments he delivered at an AIPAC conference in Washington.)

More to the point, there won't be many opportunities for gaffes. Gaffes generally require a modicum of spontaneity. And the Obama expedition, far more so than the typical campaign appearance, is being stage managed to the extreme. Obama will be hauled in and out of meetings, as he was this weekend in Iraq and Afghanistan; he will wave alongside foreign leaders; he will pose before iconic vistas. But the words will be kept to a minimum, and when they're offered, they will most likely be offered to American reporters--like the three network news anchors all scrambling for face time. "It's not a knowledge quiz. It's more visceral than that," Richard Haass, a top former Bush State Department official told Time last week. "Americans need to have a sense that this person can hold his own." Translation: These trips are about atmospherics, with the foreign locales serving as sophisticated props.

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http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=2017dfed-0ad7-4dbe-951e-e184c96b66ef

McSame was watching baseball with Gouliani.

:sarcasm:

about seeing Obama as the next president. I agree, it is all reward and very little risk. It doesn't have to generate an immediate bump in the polls to have an effect.

On the same day that Obama is visiting Afghanistan?? Any other places you would like him to visit?? :-)

"Why doesn't Obama go to the Middle East? Waa, waa, waa!"

Now it's "Why do you cover Obama as he tours the Middle East?"

They only want him to go if he will perform as poorly as Old John did on his last trip. They only wanted the negative coverage. Don't they realize the type of campaign they are up against? How they always do everything better?

Ha, Ha, Ha.