In the wake of the Romney World Tour Gaffathlon 2012 it is amusing in a sardonic sort of way to recall the 24/7 storm of concern trolling the media swamped us with, as Senator Obama embarked on his world tour in 2008. Such concern was conspicuously absent in the leadup to Romney's overseas trip. Any risk was framed as a possible reminder of George W. Bush, not any mistakes the savvy businessman might make. His competence was of course, presumed. Instead the Washington Post gave us a long article highlighting Romney's international exposure, starting with his family hosting a foreign exchange student when he was a boy.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane and revisit some of the choice bits the media served up back then.
WSJ:
Political Perceptions: Barack Obama’s High Stakes Trip Abroad
“At the same time, the trip poses big risks”—namely that he might commit a “big gaffe,” that he will look too chummy with Europeans who look down on the U.S., or that he shows too much “hubris” on the trip by acting as if he’s already got a job voters “haven’t given him yet,” Dickerson writes.
NY Daily News
Barack Obama's overseas trip comes with big risks
Nothing is bigger than a gaffe caught on tape. And with Obama planning to go to Israel and the Palestinian territories, he'll have plenty of chances to insert foot in mouth. Every sentence will be parsed for code words and hidden meanings, including about Iran. The region is still buzzing about his comment last month, when Obama said peace must ensure "Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided." Later he pled guilty to "poor phrasing" and said the issue was for the parties to resolve. Fair enough, but the limit is one "poor phrasing" per customer.
NY Times
Obama's world tour may pack political risks
But along the way to appearing presidential, did Sen. Barack Obama cross a political line -- as he and his advisers quietly feared, and some Republicans hoped -- by coming across as too presumptuous?
In many ways, as his journey ended here Saturday, the answer to that question might prove crucial in gauging what effect, if any, his ambitious overseas trip will have in the final months of the presidential race on the people who will decide the election.
This is one area where Republicans see an opportunity, if only a glimmer of one. While the country's mood may favor Democrats, there has been no detectable flurry of swing voters rushing to Obama.
The quandary for Obama is that while his trip clearly presented an opportunity for him -- even many Republicans conceded that he seized it masterfully with eight days of appearances in troubled lands, meetings with foreign leaders and visits to soldiers -- it also fueled the questions his critics have used to try to undercut him: whether he is arrogant and taking his election for granted.
MINNPOST
One president at a time
Obama needs the tour to overcome his lack of military and deep foreign-policy experience. He is making something close to a presidential tour — meeting with heads of state in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, France, Britain and Germany. Yet, of course, he is not the president. To presume in advance that he will win the role could be political suicide.
USA Today
One goal of the trip is to quell doubts about whether the 46-year-old, first-term senator has the background and skills to handle national security concerns in a post-9/11 world of shifting alliances and terrorist threats.
The risk is that a misstep could enhance those doubts or an overstep create a backlash.
"He's got to demonstrate that he's really capable, because unlike when Gov. (Bill) Clinton ran, this is not just 'the economy, stupid,' " says Thomas "Mack" McLarty, who served as White House chief of staff after Clinton won the presidency in a 1992 campaign focused on pocketbook issues. "If people feel he's got what it takes and he represents our country in a way we feel good about, that will help him. On the other hand, if he makes a gaffe, that could really give Sen. McCain an opening."
And that doesn't include any of the constant barrage of concern on the cable news shows. No such concerns were mentioned over and over, as if on a tape loop, by the media for Romney. But now, NBC is already wondering if this was a 'lost week' for the Romney, who maybe should have just stayed home.
Talking to special correspondent Tom Brokaw about Mitt Romney's 10-day international tour on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie suggested the effort was a mistake: "Is it a smart idea, an opportunity to look presidential? Or is it a week lost when he could be driving that message on the economy?"