Mitt Romney is wrapping up his road trip today. He made a point of making comments the people of London felt were disconcerting. He made great strides toward uniting the Israelis and Palestinians and definitely smoothed over relations with Mexican-Americans as well.
And don't forget Poland.
So after this disaster of a gaffes and missteps on foreign soil, I thought it would be interesting to see what sort news came out of Senator Obama's trip abroad in 2008.
One of my favorite pieces from this period is this one entitled "His Crime? Acting too Presidential."
So he appeared at ease with world leaders, talked animatedly with beaming American troops and drew huge civilian crowds. Then the pundits -- who had been taking a round of bashing for supposedly going easy on Obama -- told Obama he needed to beware of appearing too presidential.
Then there is this one from the
LA Times:
For Obama, the efforts to portray himself as presidential -- holding news conferences overseas, for example, or briefly using a campaign emblem similar to the White House seal -- run the risk of appearing arrogant or presumptuous.
"It's a fine line he's walking, which is to display confidence and self-assurance without appearing cocky and overconfident," said Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "Some people inevitably will judge him to be on the wrong side of the line."
For McCain, the new and sharply negative tone toward Obama could damage the Republican's image as a maverick who rejects the attack-dog politics of traditional Washington.
The Arizona senator's new TV ad shows pictures of Obama's speech last week to an estimated 200,000 people at an outdoor event in Berlin, comparing his celebrity to that of pop culture figures Hilton and Spears. "But is he ready to lead?" it asks.
Article after article was about Obama's trip being
too successful. That Obama was doing some sort of victory lap with just less that 100 days until the 2008 Election.
This bit of news that came about after Obama left Israel is a great contrast to Mitt Romney's rant against Palestinian Culture.
Having met Tuesday and Wednesday with top Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian officials after stopping in Iraq and Afghanistan over the weekend, Obama is through the most politically difficult part of his trip. Given the fawning media coverage and the non-stop attention, the visit was well worth the time away from the States. Without a major faux pas, and with photos of everyone from Hamid Karzai to Nouri al-Malaki to Shimon Peres, Obama covered his general foreign policy base, his Iraq and Afghanistan bases and his Israeli-Palestinian conflict base, all of which were seen as weaknesses at one point.
It is worth noting that until 2008 these sort of overseas trips weren't common. This is new territory for Presidential Campaigns. Then Senator Obama had a virtually flawless trip overseas and impressed the world with his "Not Bush" essence. Even McCain (who also went abroad at the about the same time) had a more or less uneventful trip. But he was certainly no stranger to foreign soil.
Mitt Romney must have seen those trips and thought it looked quite easy. Maybe even fun. I suspect we won't see a Republican attempt this again.