John McCain: International Man, It's No Mystery

LONDON, March 20, 2008— -- For the past week, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been front and center on the world stage.

Last weekend, he traveled to Iraq, accompanied by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and Gen. David Petraeus.

From Iraq, he visited Jordan, where he conferred with King Abdullah, then to Israel where he visited the Western Wall and held talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

From Israel, he flew to London for a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street.

That his whirlwind itinerary resembled that of a president visiting heads of state was hardly accidental.

"While Clinton and Obama are fighting each other viciously in America, McCain is overseas looking very much like a president, and that's what his campaign wants people to think of him as," said ABC News political consultant Mark Halperin.

"Anybody running not as an incumbent has to get the American people to think of them as president. McCain is getting picture after picture that's giving people at least the idea of what he'd look like as president."

Recounting his 45-minute meeting with Brown, McCain said they talked about such issues as fighting climate change.

But British reporters were more interested in his position on the Iraq War, which is very unpopular in the United Kingdom.

"We are now succeeding in Iraq and Americans, at least I believe, are in significant numbers agreeing that the present strategy of the surge is succeeding and they want us to succeed," McCain said. "And that will be, frankly, a very big issue in this campaign … whether we withdraw and have al Qaeda win and announce to the world that they have won or we will see this strategy through and have a stable democracy in Iraq."

Officially, McCain's overseas trip is a congressional fact-finding mission at taxpayer expense.

When asked a question about his presidential campaign, he insisted, "I am here as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and looking and discussing those issues concerning our nation's defense and security."