All the World's Obama Stage: Will He Shine?
Obama hits trail on different continent to shore up foreign policy credentials.
July 17, 2008 -- Sen. Barack Obama is hitting the campaign trail on a different continent.
Seeking to boost his image on foreign policy, Obama, D-Ill., will travel to Israel, Jordan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom next week and is expected to at some point soon visit both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The trip represents a milestone in Obama's political career: the Illinois Senator has never been to Afghanistan, and his last visit to Iraq was 921 days ago, a fact his opponents are quick to point out.
In order to win the White House, the junior senator must not only seem diplomatic, but also presidential.
"On a trip like this, on a stage like this, there is no room for error, no margin of error. So every bit of this trip needs to be choreographed. He needs to make sure every word is right, every setting is proper, and that he makes absolutely no mistakes," Tad Devine, a Democratic analyst, told ABC News.
The Obama campaign has saturated the airwaves here at home with television ads hoping to boost his national security credentials.
In an ad entitled "America's Leadership," Obama claims "the single most important national security threat that we face . . . is nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists."
The Democratic candidate has argued that diplomacy must be an integral part of foreign policy: "We have to restore diplomacy to its rightful place in our foreign policy, that's gonna be my priority along with ending this war in Iraq and winning the war in Afghanistan, restoring our alliances all around the world."
A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll shows 72 percent of Americans -- even most Democrats -- say Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would be a good commander-in-chief of the military. Fewer than half of people polled -- 48 percent -- feel that way about Obama.
The McCain campaign has been on the offensive as his rival takes the world stage, trying to portray Obama's upcoming trip as nothing more than a photo-op.
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