By Stephen J. Farnsworth
For the John McCain campaign, Barak Obama’s trip to Europe last week was a lesson in being careful for what one wishes.
Over the past several months, the Illinois Senator and all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee has faced attacks about what critics say is his inability to handle foreign and military matters, first from Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York in the primaries and now from his likely Republican general election rival, the senior senator from Arizona.
McCain has attacked Obama for an allegedly defeatist and naïve approach to the Middle East, a sharp contrast to the experience and the toughness that McCain says will enable him to deal with one of the world’s most dangerous regions. A few weeks ago, Republicans were gleefully counting the number of days it had been since Obama had been to Iraq or Afghanistan and regularly urged him to visit both countries as soon as possible.
After having focused so much attention on Obama’s need to travel, the McCain campaign spent much of last week complaining about the heavy media attention the trip received. All three network anchors accompanied Obama, not exactly a surprise given its importance in the campaign – an importance magnified by past Republican taunts.
While there, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki all but endorsed Obama, and spoke gushingly of the Democrat’s plan for rapid troop withdrawals starting next year. For the Bush administration and for McCain, the Iraqi leader’s about-face undermined Republican arguments that Obama did not know what he was talking about on Iraq. Al-Maliki, who owes his position to the Bush administration’s actions, apparently had little interest in appearing grateful.
For Obama, though, the best was yet to come. Rather than simply satisfy Republican demands that he visit Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama doubled-down on the foreign policy question, traveling to Israel as well as Germany, France and the United Kingdom. His Berlin speech generated extreme public enthusiasm—and a massive crowd. His meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy—a conservative and one of the few foreign leaders invited to visit Bush at his family’s Maine estate—generated a highly animated near-endorsement.
“If he is chosen, then France will be delighted,” Sarkozy said following a brief meeting with the senator.
While Obama’s campaign has generated more news media coverage than has McCain, in recent weeks the Republican has benefited from less negative media treatment. A new Center for Media and Public Affairs study looking at network news coverage between June 8, the day after Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination, and July 21, as Obama began his overseas trip, found that 28 percent of the statements about him on ABC, CBS and NBC were positive in tone, as compared to 43 percent positive statements relating to McCain.
While enthusiastic German crowds, supportive Iraqi leaders and caffeinated French presidents do not determine US presidential elections, the pictures and sound bites from the Democrat’s road trip undermines the McCain campaign’s claim that the newly minted US senator – he has been in Washington only since 2004 – can’t handle global matters.
These are tough times for McCain. Gallup tracking polls conducted over the weekend show that Obama had opened up a 49 percent to 40 percent advantage, the highest number for Obama, the lowest number for McCain and the largest gap between the two during July.
Fortunately for McCain, polls also show that Americans care a lot more about gas prices than Iraqi prime ministers.
Stephen J. Farnsworth teaches courses in media politics and journalism at George Mason University, where he is assistant professor of communication. He is co-author, with S. Robert Lichter, of The Nightly News Nightmare: Television’s Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2004.
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