Obama got the presidential treatment. Bad photo op time Obama in front of 200,000 and McCain in front of 200 at a German restaurant in Ohio. with the exception of that little mistake at the military hospital it was a good week for Obama.
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AP Photo: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks during a news conference at 10 Downing...
Analysis: Obama treated like a president on tour
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
Sat Jul 26, 1:28 PM ET
LONDON - Maybe the foreign leaders Barack Obama met with on his mid-campaign overseas trip were merely hedging their bets and don't believe he will win the White House this fall.
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But that's not how many of them acted.
Jordan's King Abdullah flew back early from Aspen, Colo., to host dinner at his palace, then personally took the wheel of the royal Mercedes to drive his guest to the airport.
"God bless you," Israeli President Shimon Peres greeted Obama the next morning in Jerusalem.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy virtually endorsed the man he called "my dear Barack Obama." He observed puckishly he wasn't meddling in the U.S. election when he suggested Obama follow his own lead by winning the top political office in the United States.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, himself an aspirant for higher office, rarely strayed from Obama's side during a photo opportunity-rich trip to the village of Sderot near the Gaza Strip targeted by Hamas rockets.
And Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced — twice — in the days surrounding Obama's visit to his country that he favors a timeline for the withdrawal of American combat troops that is remarkably similar to the one the Democratic presidential contender favors.
In London, David Cameron, head of the opposition Conservative Party, made sure British as well as American television cameras recorded him with his guest in three separate locations in less than an hour.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was something of an exception. No welcoming remarks for the cameras, no photos of the two meeting in her office. She did issue a statement calling Obama's speech before 200,000 people citing a need for a renewed U.S.-European alliance "a positive signal." But that was after she had embarrassed the presidential hopeful by making it known she did not think the historic Brandenburg Gate was a suitable venue for a political event by a traveling American.
She prevailed on that point — the speech was delivered from a different war memorial, the Victory Column. But Obama's campaign went to lengths to insist that the trip, little more than 100 days before the election, was not political.
Of course not.
In Washington, some senators have aides carry their paperwork between committee hearings. In Amman, Obama disembarked from a military aircraft toting his own body armor after a trip through Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait on an official congressional visit.
The campaign-sponsored travel began when he stepped off the V22. Coincidentally, his inaugural flight aboard a refurbished chartered 757 aircraft — one chair bore the inscription "Obama '08/President" — was later the same day, from Jordan to Israel.
A campaign photographer and videographer flew along to record any scenes that might come in useful in the fall campaign.
The stagecraft was presidential-level, beginning with the ancient ruins overlooking Amman that served as the venue for a news conference, a backdrop that was another gift of the Jordanian government.
The Israeli portion of the tour, of prime importance to American Jewish voters who have been slow to warm to Obama, included a stop at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, a visit to Sderot, the Israeli village where he inspected the damage caused by one Hamas rocket, and a pre-dawn appearance at the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism.
Obama also went to Ramallah, on the West Bank, to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a stop that was not on Republican candidate John McCain's itinerary during his visit to the region in March.
But from the moment he landed in Jerusalem until his flight to Europe about 30 hours later, his consistent message was that he has "an unshakable commitment to the security" of Israel.
While Republicans fumed at the extensive coverage, Obama adroitly sought to minimize expectations that his support would soar in the wake of his tour. He said he wouldn't be surprised if his poll numbers dipped in the coming days, adding: "We have been out of the country for a week. People are worried about gas prices and home foreclosures."
There were bumps along the way, most notably when Obama's aides offered two different explanations for his decision to cancel a trip to visit wounded troops at a military hospital in Germany.
In the first, spokesman Robert Gibbs strongly suggested that Obama had made his decision with no outside pressure and was acting "out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign."
A few hours later, the campaign issued a statement in the name of retired Gen. Scott Gration, an Obama adviser, that disclosed the cancellation came after the Pentagon had raised concerns.
Gibbs told reporters in an unusual mid-flight news conference he did not believe the Pentagon had set Obama up for criticism.
Nor did he acknowledge that Obama's initial judgment was flawed when he decided he could make the trip without involving wounded warriors in a campaign controversy. The stop was canceled because of the Pentagon's perception, he said.
Even so, while Obama was globe-trotting, McCain and the Republicans seemed out of sorts, an indication they recognized the political benefit the Democratic contender might be deriving from his unprecedented trip.
McCain went to a German restaurant in Ohio the day Obama spoke to the throng in Berlin.
He told reporters he, too, would like to give a speech in Germany.
"But I'd much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for president," he said.
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