Obama's Rough Landing Home

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.

And so, I believe he had the opportunity to go without the media. And I'll let the facts speak for themselves.

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.

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