By Jwilkes from Eyes on Obama:
According to Gallup's rolling three-day national polling, Barack Obama's trip didn't do a lot to change the presidential race. While he was visiting American troops and foreign leaders, he saw a marked increase, topping out at a nine-point margin over GOP nominee John McCain. But since he's returned, the polling numbers seemed to have calmed down considerably: as of today, Obama is just one point ahead of his Republican counterpart.
According to Gallup's rolling three-day national polling, Barack Obama's trip didn't do a lot to change the presidential race. While he was visiting American troops and foreign leaders, he saw a marked increase, topping out at a nine-point margin over GOP nominee John McCain. But since he's returned, the polling numbers seemed to have calmed down considerably: as of today, Obama is just one point ahead of his Republican counterpart.
So the trip didn't net a sustained bounce- big deal.
The point of the trip was not to affect the polls in the long run- sure, it would have been an incredibly positive serendipitous development if that ended up being the result. But the immediate goal had nothing to do with enhancing the buffer between Obama and the Arizona Senator. After all, with the exception of the US troops serving overseas and any American citizens who happened to be in Berlin the day he drew a record 200,000 people out to hear him speak, none of the people he appealed to over there is going to be able to help him come November.
The aim of the unprecedentedly successful journey was to control the field and set the boundaries by which the election will be measured. For years, Democrats have suffered in national elections because they allowed their opponents to define the terms of debate. In 2004, George W. Bush had John Kerry on the defensive on everything under the sun- from his vote on the Iraq War to his military service, Kerry allowed Bush to run the table from beginning to end.
McCain's primary area of expertise- insofar as he has claimed himself- is foreign policy. He's used his time as POW, his years in the Senate, and his history of supporting the war in Iraq as justification for his claiming of the foreign policy mantle. But how much foreign policy experience does McCain really have? Wesley Clark drew a lot of heat when he tried to say this, but let's be honest: for as honorable, admirable, tragic, and heroic as it was that he spent five years of his life in the Hanoi Hilton, the experience could not have possibly taught McCain how to deal with foreign dignitaries, how to engage in multilateral negotiations, or how to broker deals to the benefit of the most powerful nation in the world on the international stage. In the Senate, McCain was never given a foreign policy committee chair. So again: where is the foreign policy "expertise?"
The purpose of the Obama trip was to highlight McCain's utter dearth of international pedigree. From here forward, any time McCain says, "I know better how to handle the US on the world stage," Obama has an answer: "When Iraq decided whose plan for their future was better, it seems they had a different opinion."
Obama cracked McCain's stranglehold on the foreign policy platform. If he did nothing more than develop enough of a voice to speak with authority on international issues, it's bad news for McCain. If the Arizona Senator has to rely on domestic issues (the economy, immigration, oil prices), he's in trouble. People may not realize it, but Obama scored a major point against McCain. Why? Because he hit McCain in the one place where he felt safe.
And now, the GOP nominee may not be safe anywhere.
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