'Oh Mexico'

With Obama in Colorado, McCain travels abroad again

ByABC News
July 1, 2008, 6:31 PM

July 1, 2008— -- John McCain continues his foreign trip, waking up in Colombia for morning events before flying (sans satellite TV on the new Straight Talk Express with Wings) to Mexico.

In case tonight's media availability isn't enough, McCain will take questions from the press again Wednesday in Cartagena.

Tivo Alert! John McCain will be live from Cartagena, Colombia in an exclusive interview on Good Morning America.

Barack Obama heads to Colorado Springs on Wednesday for remarks on national service.

Per the Obama campaign, he will lay out his "comprehensive national service agenda," the third in a series of speeches this week focusing on "enduring values."

This is Obama's first visit to the Centennial State as the presumptive Democratic nominee, but will certainly not be the last. The Democrats would love to flip Colorado from red to blue on Election Day and the state will get the Party's undivided attention at the convention in August.

With an eye on flipping Colorado in 2004, John Kerry launched his cross-country biography tour in Colorado Springs, his birthplace, but ultimately lost the state to Bush 51.7 percent to 47 percent. The political landscape this election year looks better for Democrats than it did in 2004 which makes it one of the key battlegrounds heading into the fall campaign season.

Obama also holds meetings (James Dobson? NORAD? John Elway?) and a fundraiser in Colorado on Wednesday.

Today in a media availability in Zanesville, OH, Obama guaranteed that the Gen. Wes Clark/McCain service comments would live to see another few hours of the media cycle. Obama denied that Clark's critique was on par with the Swiftboat attacks of 2004 and said that a line in his speech on patriotism yesterday was not in response to the uproar over the Clark comments and had actually been written two months ago.

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports that Obama said his reference yesterday ("[N]o one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides. We must always express our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform.") was not directed at Gen. Clark.