The Big Backfire

As predicted, Barack Obama's trip abroad has amounted to nothing short of a campaign disaster for John McCain. Having dared and taunted Obama to tour the "situation on the ground," McCain probably wishes he'd never been so cavalier. Besides the story of how Iraq's Prime Minister essentially endorsed Barack Obama's timeline for a U.S. troop withdrawal--angering President Bush and McCain--the other main narrative to come out of the trip so far was how confident and presidential Obama seemed when touring the war zone, meeting with our troops, military leaders, and foreign heads of state.

Meanwhile, back at home, McCain, the human gaffe machine, hemmed and hawed over just how serious a situation we faced in Afghanistan, despite the fact that General Petraeus believes that Al Qaeda may be shifting out of Iraq and into Afghanistan and Pakistan. In an interview with Diane Sawyer, McCain then went on to confused the two countries his rival was visiting, invoking a nonexistent "Iraq/Pakistan border."

The images of each of the two men could not have contrasted more starkly over the past few days. Politico's Ben Smith summed up the public relations disparity by posting two photos taken yesterday.

The first is Barack Obama and General Petraeus touring Iraq by helicopter.



The second is John McCain and former president George H.W. Bush touring Kennebunkport, Maine in a golf cart before a closed-door fundraiser.



I wonder what McCain has planned for the day Obama speaks to a crowd of upwards of a million Berliners, maybe a political edition of MTV Cribs to show off Cindy's collection of private planes?

And looking down the cart path a bit, Obama will deliver his party's acceptance speech before a crowd of 75,000 on the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. The next day, the cameras will be rolling to capture McCain, who fought to oppose the King holiday, as he turns 72.