U.S. campaign gets international flavor

WASHINGTON —

Globalization has hit American presidential politics.

As never before in a campaign for the White House, the two main candidates have carved out international itineraries that are taking them to major world capitals and hot spots — a diversion from the usual hopscotch campaign map that tends to favor the swing regions of, say, Ohio and Florida.

For Republican John McCain, multiple trips to Iraq, a recent visit to Canada and a swing through Latin America that begins today are meant to showcase an already strong international profile from his Navy years, followed by more than two decades on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

A meeting (and photo op) in Washington last Saturday with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows that Sen. McCain doesn't even need to leave the country to burnish his foreign-policy credentials.

For Democrat Barack Obama, a multinational tour of Europe and the Middle East scheduled for mid-July aims to add some heft to the Illinois senator's light foreign-policy resume — and, in Europe at least, tap into the Obamamania that's already in full flower.

America's image abroad has taken a major hit during the Bush presidency, with an unpopular U.S.-led war in Iraq and positions on global warming at odds with much of the developed world. Both candidates seem eager to repair that. But the messages will be aimed as much at American voters as at foreign audiences.

"They will be saying, 'Yes, as a political candidate, I am doing the things that are necessary to ensure American leadership abroad,'" said Tom Henriksen, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. "So they reassure the electorate."

Obama to visit Iraq

Sen. Obama on Saturday announced he will visit Israel, Jordan, Britain, France and Germany to meet with allies and discuss terrorism, nuclear weapons and global warming.

Obama also plans to travel to Iraq and Afghanistan this year, but as part of a congressional delegation that would include other senators and be funded by taxpayer dollars. Obama has visited Iraq once, more than two years ago, before the U.S. military buildup that has had some positive effects.

McCain, who has visited Iraq eight times, had proposed they visit Iraq together, but Obama dismissed that as a "political stunt."

Obama has opposed the Iraq war from the start, a major contrast point between him and McCain. On GOP.com, Republicans have fixated on Obama's paucity of Iraq visits by clocking down to the second how long it's been since he last visited (904 days, as of Monday).

Obama has no military experience, and polls show him losing to McCain in handling of security matters. Obama has argued that judgment is more important than experience.

In his visit to Europe, where Obama enjoys sky-high approval ratings, there could be a downside to all the adulation. After all, his immediate need is to win over white, working-class American voters, not European elites.

In a Newsweek column last week, BBC anchor Matt Frei warned against the perils of Obamamania, noting that the pleadings of foreigners don't necessarily translate to votes in the American heartland.

In 2004, "Britain's Guardian newspaper didn't help when it called on its readers to write to every single voter in Clark County, Ohio, beseeching them to vote for [Democratic nominee John] Kerry," Frei wrote.

McCain's trip this week to Colombia and Mexico is likely to be a lower-key affair than Obama's foreign travels. The Arizona senator will be in Cartagena, Colombia, meeting with President Alvaro Uribe to discuss trade and narcotics.

Democrats in Congress are holding up a free-trade pact with Colombia that has come to symbolize growing opposition among U.S. workers to free-trade pacts, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

McCain's Latin agenda

On Thursday, McCain will meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderón to discuss bilateral cooperation in the fight against drug cartels. McCain is not expected to do or say anything that would depart from Bush administration policy, even as he tries to distance himself from an unpopular president.

Aside from highlighting his foreign-policy credentials outside the Middle East, McCain's Latin American foray is probably aimed at Hispanics in the U.S. — a fast-growing and pivotal voter bloc. Last Saturday, at a convention of U.S. Latino leaders, both candidates delivered speeches touting the benefits of immigration, even as McCain seeks to reassure the GOP base that he favors securing the U.S.-Mexican border before pushing for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

McCain's most recent foreign trip was to Ottawa, on June 20, when he spoke to the Economic Club of Canada. According to an Associated Press report, he told reporters that this was "not a political campaign trip." But then in his speech he indirectly criticized Obama (though not by name) over his suggestions that the NAFTA needs to be revised and renegotiated.

"Demanding unilateral changes and threatening to abrogate an agreement that has increased trade and prosperity is nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls," he said.

Given the woes of American workers, McCain was certainly on safer ground making that comment in Canada than in Michigan or Pennsylvania. But among much of the Republican base, support for free trade is an article of faith.

The announcement that Obama would go forward with any foreign campaign trip follows weeks of private discussions among the candidate and his foreign policy and political advisers to sketch out the pros, cons and goals of overseas travel before the general election.

The Mideast portion of Obama's trip, said Aaron Miller, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, is "primarily about signaling to the pro-Israel community that Barack Obama has a fundamental stake in the security and sovereignty of Israel."

In a statement announcing the trip, Obama said that "Israel is a strong and close friend of the United States, and is confronting grave threats from Gaza to Tehran. Jordan has been a close partner in the peace process and a host of other issues of common concern."

As for the overall trip, Miller said of Obama, "When he connects with people not only does he influence them but the pictures of his connecting add to his credibility."

Obama and his team "may calculate this can only help him because they're going to put him in situations where he's engaging with world leaders and he's going to demonstrate a certain gravitas in his public remarks," Miller said.

Obama used his opposition to the war effectively in the early stages of the Democratic primaries to put Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who voted for the resolution authorizing the war, on the defensive. Now, the Republicans' standing on security and a relatively improved security situation in Iraq that many attribute to President Bush's troop buildup appear to be driving Obama toward a more measured exit strategy — or at least a rhetorical emphasis that is couched more for a general-election audience than for antiwar Democratic activists. Republicans already are accusing him of changing his position.

On Friday, appearing with Clinton, D-N.Y., in Unity, N.H., Obama described the choice for voters in November as one between a McCain policy that would leave U.S. forces deployed for decades or "a gradual, responsible withdrawal from Iraq."

Obama's stated policy is to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq soon after he is sworn in as president and to have all combat forces out within about 16 months, leaving behind a residual force. What is not clear is how he would act if there were a spike in violence early in his presidency or as U.S. forces withdraw.

Differences on Iraq

Denis McDonough, Obama's senior foreign-policy adviser, said that Obama has consistently viewed Iraq as a diversion from the war in Afghanistan and the battle against al-Qaida, that he has long argued that the United States must be careful in how it withdraws from Iraq, and that the U.S.-led coalition should use the leverage of its forces there to pressure Iraqi leaders for political reconciliation.

McCain staked his candidacy on the troop buildup and now hopes to reap political dividends in the face of evidence that it has helped reduce violence and U.S. casualties.

McDonough said Obama's view of the troop buildup is that, while it has reduced violence, it has failed to bring about the political reconciliation that was part of Bush's stated objective.

Additional information from McClatchy Newspapers, The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times