Barack Obama is back from his whirlwind tour of the Middle East and Europe. Obama wowed 200,000 in Berlin, where he had them from Guten Tag. Which, loosely translated is I'm not George W. Bush.While Obama must be given props for his picture-perfect stagecraft , he acknowledges that his foreign trip may trip him up at home:
In terms of raw politics, in the short-term there's just as much downside as upside to a trip like this, even when it's well executed. People at home are worried about gas prices, they're worried about mortgage foreclosures - and for a week they're seeing me traipse around the world? It's easy to paint that as somehow being removed from people's day-to-day problems.
The Washington Post similarly asks:
What isn't measurable is whether it worked. Will a week of one-on-one meetings with foreign officials, cheering crowds, favorable and voluminous media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic and plain good fortune on the debate over getting out of Iraq overcome the doubts he faces at home about his readiness to be president? And if it doesn't, what will?Meanwhile, John McCain is attacking Obama over his canceled visit with wounded troops at a military hospital.
McCain told ABC's "This Week":
In Landstuhl, Germany, when I went through, I visited - I visited the hospital. But the important thing is that, if I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn't visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event.It is ironic that a rock-star rally in Germany and a fawning press may exacerbate Obama's vulnerability with white working-class voters who don't think he shares their values.
And so, I believe he had the opportunity to go without the media. And I'll let the facts speak for themselves.
Comments: (17)
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By: Greg Jones on 7/29/2008 1:09AM
From Blacks4Barack....
For those who prayed for Obama's safe journey....Prayer Works !
Visit: www.Blacks4Barack.org
Say It Loud...BARACK & I'M PROUD !!!
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By: Flander Anapolis on 7/28/2008 12:08PM
What is so obvious is the meida's love for McCain. They may give Obama Quantity but they give McCain Quality. All the lies, mistakes, flip-flops, and wrong info put out by McCain is overlooked. All the media wants is a tight close race. They are distorting Obama's words and deeds. McCain doesn't have to do anything but sit back and watch the media do his dirty work. Then he "cries" foul because the media reports on Obama. This is a NO-WIN situation for Barack Obama with the media.
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By: MzChea on 7/28/2008 3:13PM
McCain needs to stop whining he wanted Obama to make this trip now he made it, it was a success, Obama got a lot media coverage he didn't. You're too old to be acting like a kid. Way to go Obama you are really bringing these countries together, people are starting to like Americans again thanks.
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By: Ray on 7/28/2008 3:18PM
by Patrick J. Buchanan
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.?
Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.
This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.
Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??
Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona? and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving' white kids.?
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
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By: ahmad on 7/28/2008 4:41PM
john mccain is practicing the straw man argument. Not familiar with it look it up. Mr. Senator MCCain you remind me of the story of Caie and Able. God didnt accept your offer he accepted one that was Able (Barack) to do the job. You objected Gods choice and your countenance fell and you sought out and killed your own brother in a fit of jealousy and rage. Sounds like the Bibillical story coming to life.
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By: Elmo Jones on 7/28/2008 5:56PM
Nationalist Germans and Fundamentalist Muslims do not vote in the United States Presidential elections. Why was he there?
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By: Elmo Jones on 7/28/2008 6:00PM
Nationalists Germans and Middle Eastern Muslims do not vote in the United States presidential elections.
Why was he there???
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By: George on 7/28/2008 6:41PM
"Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants."
If the white folks who ran our government, construction industry, banking and airline industry to the ground while raking in millions, we need more immigration to the US, particularly skilled immigration, not a moratorium as Pat Buchanan suggests. But then again Buchanan is so obsessed with white skin color that he would rather bring the country down with incompetent whites running the show!
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By: Suliniber Kelanen on 7/28/2008 10:04PM
Posting number 4 is so backward! What a racist. I am so ashamed of us.
Suliniber Kelanen
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By: Suliniber Kelanen on 7/29/2008 9:08AM
Posting number 4 is so backward! What a racist. I am so ashamed of us.
Suliniber Kelanen
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