Despite the adulation that greeted him on a his stops through the Middle East and Europe, before departing London the Democratic Party candidate played down the potential gains the trip might have for him in the presidential race.
"I am not sure that there is going to be some immediate political impact," Obama said in a solo press conference earlier outside 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "I wouldn't even be surprised if that in some polls you saw a little bit of a dip as a consequence," he said, just over three months before the election.
| If you saw the photos of that presser, BO is in the middle of the street outside #10, and the press make a half-circle around him. Apparently no fans were permitted. Pretty damned arrogant, all in all ... |
Republicans however branded his tour, also including Kuwait, France and Jordan, as a shallow political stunt. McCain's team sought to highlight Obama's failure to visit wounded troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at the Landstuhl US military hospital in Germany on Friday -- probably the only real hiccup of the trip.
"I think there have been nine different excuses out of Barack Obama's campaign as to why that trip and that visit never took place, and all of them fundamentally ignore one fact, which is that he couldn't make time in his schedule to meet with wounded combat troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan," McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds told Fox News on Saturday. "He prioritizes throngs of fawning Germans over meeting with wounded combat troops in Germany," Bounds said. And even before Obama got off the plane in Chicago, McCain
"And now, he made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras," the ad goes.
I'll hafta watch for that one!
Obama's tour was seen as an attempt to reduce voters' doubts over his credentials as commander-in-chief -- one of the few policy areas in which he trails McCain.I went to Morocco, once. So now I'm a diplomat?
Those meetings followed visits with France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel, Obama opening
McCain, who has struggled to get media coverage in the United States during Obama's trip, delivered a sarcastic verdict on Obama's travels in his weekly radio address. "This week the presidential contest was a long-distance affair, with my opponent touring various continents and arriving yesterday in Paris," he said. "With all the breathless coverage from abroad, and with Senator Obama now addressing his speeches to 'the people of the world', I'm starting to feel a little left out. Maybe you are too."