Obama, Addressing Minority Journalists, Defends Travels
After trip, Obama says campaign will focus on the economy 'for the duration.'
CHICAGO -- Back home after a 10-day trip that took him halfway around the world, Barack Obama told a convention of minority journalists Sunday that his presidential campaign will focus on the economy "for the duration," but the presumptive Democrat nominee issued a spirited defense of his travels.
Obama said he was "puzzled" by suggestions that his trip through European and Middle Eastern capitals was presumptuous. "I basically met with the same folks John McCain met with after he won the nomination and nobody said that was audacious," Obama said. McCain traveled to Europe and the Middle East in March.
"Now I admit, we did it really well," grinned Obama, who won a near-endorsement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris and drew an audience of 200,000 in Berlin. "But that shouldn't be held against me. If I was bumbling and fumbling through this thing, I would have been criticized for that too."
Obama said he felt the trip was worthwhile to broaden his understanding of the international scene and build relationships with foreign leaders, though he acknowledged it might cost him temporarily in the polls at a time when voters are focused on domestic pocketbook issues such as the rising price of gasoline.
Those issues will be center stage Monday afternoon in Washington, when Obama emcees a panel of economic experts to discuss short-term and long-term solutions to the nation's economic problems. Panelists will include former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Obama said.
In a Q-&-A with members of Unity, a convention for African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic and Native American journalists, Obama criticized his Republican opponent, John McCain, for announcing Sunday he'd back a ballot initiative in his home state to ban affirmative action after earlier opposing such an effort as divisive.
While Obama said programs designed to give a boost to minorities cannot be long-term solutions to racial discrimination, he expressed dismay at McCain's apparent change of heard. "I am disappointed that John McCain flipped," said Obama.
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