Hussein Embarks On World Tour- To Reach Voters In His Backyard?
(The Times)
Barack Obama embarks this weekend on a tour of Europe, the Middle East and Afghanistan — a feverishly anticipated audition on the world stage that includes the unprecedented spectacle of an American presidential candidate addressing a huge crowd in a foreign city.
Yet, for all the adoring throngs that are likely to greet the Democratic contender and the eight foreign leaders he will meet, the trip is aimed at voters back home, where Mr Obama’s youth and inexperience have raised significant doubts that he has the gravitas, grit and sure-footedness to be their next commander-in-chief.
The 12,000-mile whirlwind tour, extraordinary for its timing midway through a general election campaign and the international media frenzy it is attracting, will take Mr Obama to Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Germany, France and Britain as he seeks to bolster his national security credentials — one of his greatest electoral liabilities.
Should any of his hosts be under the illusion that the trip is not primarily a White House campaign event, Mr Obama, 46, is taking no foreign journalists. Instead, he has filled his campaign plane with US reporters, including three television news anchors, who are in discussions to hold prime-time interviews with him on consecutive nights.
It is a sobering contrast for John McCain, his Republican opponent, whose European and Middle East trip in May garnered scant coverage.
In London a week tomorrow, the last leg of the trip, where Mr Obama is likely to spend less than a day, he will meet Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street and then David Cameron, and will briefly shake hands with a few campaign contributors.
His British visit comes amid anxieties in Whitehall about how strong a commitment to the “special relationship” a President Obama would make. There have been signs that he views France and Germany as more at the heart of Europe, rather than Britain, a country he has only fleetingly visited twice. There is also a sense that Mr Brown has been eclipsed in American eyes by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and President Sarkozy of France.
Indeed, the significant event of the trip will be an address next Thursday in Berlin before what is expected to be a massive crowd in a country where Mr Obama enjoys approval ratings that Mrs Merkel could only dream of, and where his aides hope that comparisons to a young John F. Kennedy electrifying the city in 1963 will be clear.
Choreographing the Berlin speech has been fraught with tensions and diplomatic blunders. The Obama campaign initially sought to hold it at the Brandenburg Gate, where Ronald Reagan — as President — declared in 1987: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Mrs Merkel expressed her distaste at the idea of a White House candidate using one of Berlin’s most famous landmarks as the backdrop for a speech. Her spokesman said that she felt “displeasure” at the idea, adding that no German politician running for high office would dream of using the National Mall in Washington for a public event.
Mr Obama’s aides, who now concede that the Brandenburg Gate idea was a poor one — and perhaps smacked of arrogance — are understood to be searching for a new site.
Mr Obama has been taunted by Mr McCain for having visited Iraq only once — in 2006 — and never setting foot in Afghanistan. In a speech this week he repeated his vow to withdraw US combat troops within 16 months — a timetable opposed by No 10 — and to refocus on Afghanistan, a war that he said “we must win”.
His trip to Iraq and Afghanistan has been shrouded in secrecy for security reasons but has significant implications for London, Paris and Berlin. One of his first international acts as president would be to demand more European troops and money for Afghanistan, a conflict where he might rapidly discover, like previous US presidents, that in matters of war Britain is America’s most reliable ally.
On the Iraq leg of his trip, Mr Obama is taking with him Jack Reed, a Democratic colleague in the Senate and former army officer, and Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator who has been highly critical of the Iraq war and has been touted as a possible bipartisan vice-presidential choice.
In Baghdad, the group will meet the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and President Talabani, and will receive a briefing from General David Petraeus, the US ground commander.
Yesterday Mr McCain repeated criticisms that he made of Mr Obama on Tuesday, mocking him for laying out his Iraq strategy before he had visited the country. The normal way to proceed, he said, was to get the facts on the ground before announcing the policy.
In Jordan, King Abdullah is expected to get a promise from Mr Obama that, if elected, he will place a high priority on invigorating Arab-Israeli peace talks.
Mr Obama will then step gingerly into the minefield of the Arab-Israeli conflict with a visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Ramallah, where every statement and gesture will be scrutinised.
Israelis have been uneasy about Mr Obama amid perceptions that he is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and because of his willingness to talk with the Iranian leadership. In a recent speech to a US Jewish lobbying group, Mr Obama, seeking to prove his pro-Israeli credentials, declared that Jerusalem should be the “undivided” capital of Israel, which alarmed Palestinians and appeared to pre-judge final-status talks.
He has since backtracked from that remark and is likely to seek to clarify it when he meets Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, in Ramallah on Wednesday. In Jerusalem he will meet the Israeli President, Shimon Peres, the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, and the opposition Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu. He is expected to visit the Wailing Wall.
Mr Obama’s aides know that their candidate will be greeted in Europe by an adoring public, producing images that they hope will persuade voters that he is the right man to restore America’s international reputation and repair frayed relations.
Yet he leaves behind a tough campaign at home — he enjoys only a small lead over Mr McCain in polls — and a country where being loved by Europeans is not always a key to success. John Kerry, Mr Bush’s 2004 opponent, was even ridiculed by Republicans for “looking French”. Any mistake or faux pas could increase perceptions that he is not yet ready for the Oval Office.
Mr Obama, who is not taking his wife Michelle on the trip, did receive a boost on the campaign front yesterday. His staff announced that he raised $52 million (£26 million) last month, reversing a downward trend in his recent efforts to boost funds. Mr McCain raised $22 million last month, his best fundraising performance of the year.
Jill Hazelbaker, Mr McCain’s spokeswoman, said of Mr Obama’s trip: “Let’s drop the pretence that this is a fact-finding trip and call it what it is: the first-of-its-kind campaign rally overseas. It’s a giant photo opportunity.”
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Welsh’s headline - “Obama Embarks On World Tour — To Reach Voters In His backyard?”
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July 17th, 2008 at 7:18 pm“Mr Obama’s aides, who now concede that the Brandenburg Gate idea was a poor one — and perhaps smacked of arrogance”
Smacked? He’s arrogance personified.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:30 pmWhy address ANY ‘crowd’ if not for the ’see! they like me in Europe!’ photo-op ?
Just finished the article, several paragraphs in I was going to write a rather long comment.
But when I finished the article I realized that my mouth had been hanging open in disbelief.
I don’t know what to say except that I can’t believe this fucking, empty suit, moronic, idiotic, lying sack of shit is any where close to the Presidency of the United States of America!
Well, at least the Timesonline gets it.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:36 pmIm sure they will be passing out absentee ballots to all his adoring foreign supporters.
July 17th, 2008 at 7:55 pmGood point TJ.
‘Hey, take one of these ballots and send it in. I’m from Chicago where even dead people get to vote. Help a brother out now.’
July 17th, 2008 at 8:01 pmThis dipshit needs to visit Iraq and Afghanistan. not Europistan.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:06 pmI really hate Obama, what an arrogant jerk. He’s not President yet but he’s already acting like one!
July 17th, 2008 at 8:11 pmThat Europeans adore Obama is just one more reason to vote against him. Maybe Katie will do some man-in-the street interviews where Franz and Pierre can tell us all we better vote for Barack because they think he’s a super cool dude. Of course he’d never get elected to high office in their countries if he’d been unfortunate enough to be born over there instead of in the good ole USA. Pretty much only pasty pale faces over there when it comes to electing Prime Ministers and Presidents. But I’m sure it’s not a racist thing. There’s just probably no Turkish-German or Moroccan-French or Pakistani-Brit citizen that’s, you know, qualified.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pmAre there electoral votes in Berlin? OH, and three news anchors have to accompany him? Any anchors go with McCain to Iraq or Colombia a couple of weeks ago? In fact, he was made fun of because there aren’t any votes down in Colombia.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:04 pmHow jealous Bill Clinton must be. Even he didn’t hold a “first-of-its-kind campaign rally overseas.”
Is it possible Obama’s going to “Europistan” because huge crowds of frenzied extremists will show up and shout his name? They’ll never be identified by the press as Muslims; that would be considered “racist.” It could be Obama’s way of thumbing his nose, though, at Americans who’ve got his number and won’t vote for him. And, of course, he’ll return to the U.S. making the European Union sound so much better than our federal government. A weird comparison but I bet you that’s exactly what he’ll do.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:46 pmWorthless POS…don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:27 am“That Europeans adore Obama is just one more reason to vote against him. Maybe Katie will do some man-in-the street interviews where Franz and Pierre can tell us all we better vote for Barack because they think he’s a super cool dude. Of course he’d never get elected to high office in their countries if he’d been unfortunate enough to be born over there instead of in the good ole USA. Pretty much only pasty pale faces over there when it comes to electing Prime Ministers and Presidents. But I’m sure it’s not a racist thing. There’s just probably no Turkish-German or Moroccan-French or Pakistani-Brit citizen that’s, you know, qualified.”
if your talking of “Pierre”, then I can tell you that he doesn’t care who’ll get in your office, for the main raison that “he” always makes his “independant policy”, that often goes against the anglo-saxon interests : business is business, question of surviving.
A McCain, or an Obama, won’t change anything for us, just the rethoric in the medias, while Bush was/is “aggressive”, Pierre expects that the “political correctness” will be again “à l’ordre du jour”.
July 18th, 2008 at 4:44 amIf you are really bored with reading worthless yada yada yada
about Hussein, this excellent scientist argues why that New Yorker
cover (Obama as muslim terrorist) describes with maximum probability
the real Hussein.
Go here:
htp://errortheory.blogspot.com
It’s worth your time.
Scroll down one article. First article is about the
terrorist memorial mosque also known as Flight 93 memorial.
Second article is about Obama.
Conclusion: Obama is almost certainly a secret islamist,
July 18th, 2008 at 7:53 ampretending to be Christian, to get into the WH. All denials of his
are lies.
Interesting write-up. Had to fix the link though…
http://errortheory.blogspot.com/
OreObama is hiding as much as he can about himself and lying about the rest.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:18 amAsk questions on the Obama campaign website blog about his background that are deemed ‘inappropriate’ and they get deleted.
Maybe in Europe they will wrap their collective arms around the Obamessiah, and thrust him into the bosom of Socialism and not ever, ever, let him go.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:31 amMarc, I doubt that Sarkozy will
July 18th, 2008 at 9:00 am1 of 2 things r going to happen in Iraq.
1. The Area Commanders are too involved in on going operations to have a mandatory formation to listen to Obama, so it is voluntary and only a handful of ppl show up and all u will ever c is a few pics of Obama with troops.
2. Unit Commanders are ordered to voluntold some bodies to listen to Obama speak and u get shots of mass troop formations with Obama speaking and titles like “Troops show support for Obama by turning out in the hundreds to hear him speak” type crap.
Then of course there will be the obligatory video of the handful of Soldiers (don’t know any Marines that do or would admit it if they did) saying they support Obama.
Followed by a SURGE on the homefront battleground where we will be overwhelmingly assualted by images and video from the MSM showing what a great international statesman Obama is and ooh look even the “troops” support him.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:08 amWell he’s certainly put together a SURGE of guaranteed MSM coverage.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:27 am[…] Embarks On World Tour- To Reach Voters In His Backyard? July 18, 2008 — budsimmons https://pat-dollard.com/2008/07/obama-embarks-on-world-tour-%E2%80%94-to-reach-voters-in-his-backyard Posted in B Hussein Obama, Barack Hussein Obama, Barack Obama, Hussein Obama, […]
July 19th, 2008 at 7:40 am