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Berlin, Paris, Kalamazoo. He could have given this speech anywhere. Obama goes to Berlin and winds up in Bangor. But maybe that was the point. Unlike JFK, Clinton, or Reagan, Obama's purpose in Berlin was essentially self-serving. The great cause at stake was his own campaign — not the threat of Communism, or adapting to a post-Communist world. The great purpose to which Obama was asking his Berlin audience to rally was his own presidential aspirations. Pretty thin, not the stuff of history books. And so far the American public agrees. All of the hoopla leading up to this moment...

Return to the Article July 26, 2008Obama the PridefulBy Jeff Dobbs When Hillary Clinton was beating the stuffing out of Obama beginning in March, she was paying off the notion that Obama is elitist, via the infamous bitter and clingy remark. Though Hillary eventually succumbed to Obama, elitism remains the candidate's fatal flaw. Many people are noticing the high regard Obama has for himself as a defining hallmark of the candidate and his campaign. He has proven unable to stop the flow of telling signs. His attempt to earn Joe Sixpack cred by bowling a line blew up in his...

While Senator Barack Obama was on his world tour, Senator John McCain should have been busy—neither planning to speak at an Gulf Coast oil rig, visiting with the Dalai Lama, nor whining about his coverage in the press. Instead, McCain should have paid a visit to the Rio Grande Valley. There, of course, fifteen counties have just been declared federal disaster areas, thousands are still without power, and an assessed $750 million dollar clean-up task awaits. All this as a result of Hurricane Dolly. The two contrasting images of the presidential candidates would have been staggering. Imagine: Obama assuring hordes...

At British Parliament today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, met with Tory Leader David Cameron. "Do you haveSeemingly unaware of an enormous fuzzy boom mike held by ABC News' Eric Kerchner, the two chatted casually -- and privately. "You should be on the beach," Cameron told Obama. "You need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together." "You've got to refresh yourself," agreed Obama. < a break at all?" asked Cameron. "I have not," said Obama. "I am going to take a week in August. But I agree with you that somebody, somebody who had worked...

Obama is not even feet dry on U.S. soil, and McCain loosens a few of his teeth for him.

LONDON — He stood in the shadow of the Temple of Hercules, held forth at the Élysée Palace and convened a one-man news conference here on Saturday outside No. 10 Downing Street, all with a simple aim: to make a one-term senator from Illinois look presidential to voters back home in America. But along the way to appearing presidential, did Senator Barack Obama cross a political line — as he and his advisers quietly feared, and some Republicans hoped — by coming across as too presumptuous? “In terms of raw politics, in the short-term there’s just as much downside as...

Here's the good part: In Iraq, it’s not new that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has wanted to take control of his own country. But there’s always been this gap between his assessment of his abilities and American commanders’ saying he’s not up to it. As president, faced with that difference between what he says he can do and what the commanders say he can do, how would you choose between them? Iraq is a sovereign country. Not just according to me, but according to George Bush and John McCain. So ultimately our presence there is at their invitation, and their...

A note of prayer that Barack Obama penned and slipped into the cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem was pilfered from the holy site and published in an Israeli newspaper - exposing to the world a personal plea for God to help him "guard against pride and despair."

SNIP "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," McCain told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview to air Sunday on "This Week". SNIP But McCain questioned his rival's justification: "I know of no Pentagon regulation that would have prevented him from going there -- without the media and the press and all of the associated people. Nothing that I know of would have kept him from visiting those wounded troops." McCain went on...

Listen to the crowd. They stayed hoping to hear the jelly doughnut speech, but all they got was "my father was a Kenyan goatherder".

LONDON - He stood in the shadow of the Temple of Hercules, held forth at the Elysée Palace and convened a one-man news conference here on Saturday outside No. 10 Downing St., all with a simple aim: to make a one-term senator from Illinois look presidential to voters back home in America. But along the way to appearing presidential, did Sen. Barack Obama cross a political line -- as he and his advisers quietly feared, and some Republicans hoped -- by coming across as too presumptuous? "In terms of raw politics, in the short-term there's just as much downside as...

The British and European euphoria surrounding Obama's trip is easy to understand. He is widely perceived as a charismatic, JFK-like figure, offering a seductive vision of a softer, sensitive America, while pledging to transform the negative image of the most powerful nation on earth. But let's consider the British national interest. When you push the spin and hype aside, there is scant evidence to suggest that an Obama presidency would actually strengthen the Anglo-American alliance, which has long been the engine of the free world. In fact, there is a risk it would be significantly weakened.

I so, so wanted to believe it. Really I did. He is so handsome, so fresh and, well, truth be told, I want everybody to know that I embrace diversity. I’m hip, if you can dig it. I’m not afraid of change. That is, as long as by “change” Barack Obama and his followers are referring to a change in vision, a change in paradigm and perhaps a change of tone in Washington. Politics can be so grubby and nasty. Everybody wants to see the Jimmy Stewart, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” movie come true. Unfortunately, what I think Obama...

Signaling a new aggressiveness, aides to Sen. John McCain (D-Ariz.) said Saturday that he is going up immediately with an ad called "Troops" criticizing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for canceling plans to visit wounded troops at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. The 30-second ad is to run during NBC's "Saturday Night Live" in Denver. Colorado is one of this election's most important swing states. On Sunday it will air in the Washington market and in Harrisburg, Pa., another key swing state. An announcer says: "Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan. He hadn't been to Iraq...

Sen. John McCain spent a lot of time this week making light of the media's focus on his presidential opponent, Democrat Barack Obama - even issuing "junior varsity" press passes to the reporters covering the Arizona Republican while Obama trekked across the Middle East and Europe with network anchors in tow and releasing a Web video mocking the media's Obama affection. But maybe keeping the spotlight on Obama is a great strategy for McCain. Consider: Polls show Americans are overwhelmingly upset with the Bush administration and the direction of the country. Both are recipes for a blowout for the incumbent...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that the bounce is continuing for Barack Obama. The presumptive Democratic nominee attracts 46% of the vote while John McCain earns 40%. When "leaners" are included, it’s Obama 49% and McCain 43%. Just four days ago, the candidates were tied at 46% (with leaners). Obama is viewed favorably by 57% of voters, McCain by 55%.

The US presidential candidate’s European tour stopped in London yesterday and left our man feeling a little underwhelmed IN the heat of the summer morning, a throng waited. The prophet of hope was on his way and the believers were eager for his blessing. Hope, dreams, freedom, a world made new. Those are Barack Obama’s watchwords, and yesterday in Downing Street all manner of camera teams, scribblers, acolytes and stargazers had assembled for an audience with His Expectancy. For Obama the road had been long, not just from his father’s goat herd roots in Kenya to US presidential candidate but...

And verily he came among us. The Obamessiah was too modest to perform any actual miracles on the steps of No10 Downing Street, but yesterday he did speak to a man who thinks he’s God (Tony Blair), a man in need of resurrection (Gordon Brown) and a man leading an exiled people out of the wilderness (David Cameron). What an almighty fuss, if you’ll forgive the pun, about a junior Senator who’s still only a contender for the White House. You’d think he had already got his bottom on the President’s seat in the Oval Office. After the Obamania that...

Barack Obama breezed into London and asked Gordon Brown every tourist’s favourite question: “Can you show me where the Queen lives?” The request prompted the PM to act as a VIP tour guide for the US senator hoping to become the most powerful man in the world. But alarmed US and British secret service officials curtailed their walkabout in front of a growing crowd of astonished tourists before the two leaders could get close to Buckingham Palace.

This is a sequel to the attack ad McCain dropped on him at the beginning of his trip, retaining some of the same points about Obama’s NATO subcommittee and his having steered clear of Iraq for almost three years. It’s also a sequel of sorts to the “Pump” ad from a few days ago suggesting that Obama uniquely was somehow to blame for soaring gas prices; anyone who believes that will, I guess, also believe that he’d torpedo a visit to see wounded troops because there’d be no flashbulbs popping in his face.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama has stretched his lead over John McCain among national registered voters to seven percentage points, 48% to 41%, in Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted July 23-25. This represents a continuation of Obama's frontrunner position in Gallup's Friday report, when he led McCain by six points, 47% to 41%. Earlier this week, Obama and McCain were separated by just two to four points, but that was before the extensive U.S. news coverage of the last leg of Obama's foreign tour. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

The John McCain and Barack Obama campaigns continued their back-and-forth today over Obama's cancelled visit to wounded soldiers in Germany. Obama said he did not want to bring presidential politics to hospital bedsides, and his campaign said the Pentagon also was concerned about a campaign visit. But military officials said he could have visited as a senator without campaign officials, as he did in Iraq, and Republicans have been piling on incessantly. This afternoon, McCain's campaign issued a statement from retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya, a 30-year veteran of Vietnam and the Persian Gulf wars. "The most solemn duty of...

London, July 26 (Xinhua) The US needs the help of overseas partners to solve its domestic problems, US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said here Saturday. “The reason that I thought this trip was important as I am convinced that many issues we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad,” he told a news conference. Commenting on his meeting with British Prime Minister Gorden Brown, Obama said, “We share the same language and the same belief and Britain and the US have gone through the world wars together and share...

McCain Campaign on Barack Obama's Cancelled Troop VisitsContact: Press Office, 703-650-5550; www.JohnMcCain.com ARLINGTON, Va., July 26 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today, retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya issued the following statement on Barack Obama's cancelled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl:"The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. Barack Obama had scheduled a visit with wounded American troops who have served with honor and distinction in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next....

Heading home from an overseas trip aimed at strengthening his foreign policy credentials, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he's not counting on an immediate political boost and thinks it's just as likely he'll experience a short-term dip in polls simply because he's been out of the country for nine days."The reason that I thought this trip was important was I am convinced that many of the issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad," Obama said, speaking outside 10 Downing Street after his private meeting with Prime Minister...

At a morning press conference after a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, Barack Obama got caught up in the web of lies his campaign has spun about the cancellation of his planned visit to wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Friday.Obama stated: "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we left it off the schedule."Not true, Washington Post reported this morning: When Obama arrived in Germany on Thursday, a printed schedule said he would fly...

Gerard Baker reads his 'He He ventured forth to bring light to the world' Video at link

Having begun softly during the primary season, an incessant drumbeat has steadily gained strength and will soon reach its deafening crescendo as we march toward November: If you are white and vote for anyone other than Sen. Barack Obama (Savior-IL) for president you are a racist. Joe Klein says that anyone horrible enough to suggest that Obama -- who isn't even the official nominee of his party -- is being a bit presumptuous in touring Europe and the Middle East automatically couples that criticism with "the subterranean tinge of racism." Andrew Greeley says that black Americans (all, apparently) and the...

Gallup now has Obama ahead 47-41 and Rasmussen has Obama leading by a 46-40 percent margin. Media bias is certainly a factor but McCain is running a campaign as thrilling as watching paint dry.

After meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, came before the microphones... SNIP But the Pentagon said that wasn't true, that Obama was more than welcome to come, it was just that he couldn't bring the media or campaign staff. So here's what Obama said about it all: "The staff was working this so I don’t know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened," Obama said. "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we...

At British Parliament today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, met with Tory Leader David Cameron. Seemingly unaware of an enormous fuzzy boom mike held by ABC News' Eric Kerchner, the two chatted casually -- and privately. "You should be on the beach," Cameron told Obama. "You need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together."

FNC on July 25 featured Times of London's Gerard Baker reading aloud his hilarious column, “He ventured forth to bring light to the world,” which recounted Obama's life story as if told through a gospel in the Bible.

Only two facts matter in this little episode. First, Obama is a sitting U.S. Senator and can visit the troops any time he wants. Second, the only restriction on visiting the troops was that he could not bring reporters. Most importantly, it makes no difference what you call the trip. "Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country," retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, an Obama adviser, said in a statement. "We learned from the Pentagon [Wednesday] night that the visit...

LONDON (AFP) — White House hopeful Barack Obama denied Saturday his adulation-soaked foreign tour was a premature victory lap, but admitted it could see him take a short term dip in the polls back home. The Democratic candidate wrapped up his Europe and Middle East swing with talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, before heading back home to throw himself back into the American campaign-trail crossfire. As his tour ended after trips to Iraq and Afghanistan and a speech before a staggering 200,000 people in Berlin, Republicans accused him of pulling off a shallow political stunt abroad. "I am...

Anyone who wants to understand Barack Obama would do well to stay away from the radio and the TV. Obama is a theatrical presence. That's what it means to be "charismatic": To an unnerving degree his appeal relies on sight and sound rather than sense. Better, in my opinion, to stick to the printed word. On paper (or the computer screen) his words can be thought about and chewed over. You can understand him at your own pace, undistracted by that rich baritone, the regal bearing, the excellent drape of his Burberry suits. The printed word has its problems too,...

Obama gets a German crowd together by free rock concert before and after the speech, and he is viewed by MSM as iconic in Europe. Obama apologized to Germany for USA world aggression - to all people, Germany????? He said he would repair US relations with Germany - as if it was the USA's fault? He said that he would tear down walls between our nation and the world. Those walls are called borders and sovereignty: 1) the right to make our own laws, 2) the right to commit and direct our own troops in the defense of that sovereignty,...

Obama-love could hurt what it cherishes By Chrystia Freeland Published: July 25 2008 19:32 | Last updated: July 25 2008 19:32 John McCain, it seems, has decided to re-run Hillary Clinton’s ultimately failed campaign against Barack Obama. John Heilemann, the New York magazine writer, spotted signs that the rightwing former prisoner of war was modelling himself on the left-of-centre ex-first lady a fortnight ago: both were served by feuding and leaking staffers, both were tempted into populist gambits such as supporting a summer petrol tax holiday and both were betting their record of experience could trump Mr Obama’s promise of...

WITH gestures that ranged from a wink to a sneer, most anyone you met here this week volunteered the view that Barack Obama’s visit to Europe caused unprecedented frenzy. But it’s been hard for me to find a European, aside from two Harvard-educated friends in Paris, who confessed to excitement — not just about the visit, but the prospect of an Obama presidency. It is true that Der Spiegel, the German newsweekly, featured Mr. Obama on its cover, topped by the words “Germany Meets the Superstar” — but the cover was satire, and nasty satire at that. The editors managed...

If that is what the senator thought he was doing, he still has a lot to learn about both foreign policy and the views of the American people. Although well received in the Tiergarten, the Obama speech actually reveals an even more naive view of the world than we had previously been treated to in the United States. In addition, although most of the speech was substantively as content-free as his other campaign pronouncements, when substance did slip in, it was truly radical, from an American perspective.

Big Freddy collapsed his oversized umbrella after coming through the door, shook himself like a St. Bernard and made his way to our booth. "Don't drip on me," I said as he heaved into the bench seat. "Making a weather statement," Freddy said. 'Enough already with the rain. This is July — not September." "With another three months to go before we vote." I said. "You noticed," Freddy said. "How could I not?" I asked. "TV played Obama's whirlwind trip as though he had won all ready." "And why not?" Freddy asked. "He's a fresh face. Great theater. Made for...

Obama has a problem: What do you do when you're a lightly accomplished one-term senator, a former state legislator from Illinois, a Harvard law graduate who has no substantive record of accomplishments and are running against a war hero whom polls show that Americans overwhelmingly view as far more fit to be commander in chief? Pose, of course. What else can a guy like Mr. Obama do? So the man who would be president of the United States of America flies around the world in the middle of a political campaign, enlisting the U.S. military and the Berlin Wall as...

Sen. John McCain said Friday that Sen. Barack Obama has "failed" the test of leadership posed by Iraq, ridiculing his Democratic presidential rival for continuing to reject the troop surge even as he acknowledges it has helped stabilize the troubled nation. Continues...================================================================== Obama: I'm ready to take Training Wheels off me! Obama insists he's trying to "reassure" Americans he's ready to be POTUS by conducting his week-long staged circus. Obama posed for pictures in Afghanistan and Iraq and shook hands with Sarkozy -- I feel so reassured! As if that's not enough, he drew large, cheering crowds in . ....

This edition features the visit from senators Obama, Hagel and Reed, and a five-star hotel in Baghdad's International Zone. http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21382&Itemid=163

No. 44 Has Spoken By Gerhard Spörl Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious -- he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world. It was a ton to absorb -- and what a stupendous ride through world history: the story of his own family, the Berlin Airlift, terrorists, poorly secured nuclear material, the polar caps, World War II, America's errors, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, freedom. It's amazing anyone could pack such a potpourri of issues...

"Nicolas Sarkozy's advisors received only one demand from the team of the Democratic candidate: no American flag for the press conference, because it's a candidate being received, not the president of the United States."

The headline on the website of German magazine Der Spiegel about Barack Obama's speech in Berlin: "Huge crowds left with mixed feelings." Obama turned out 200,000 in Berlin. However, CNN's Candy Crowley, reporting from the event, went on in her report to her TV audience about an absence of "euphoria." As Sen. Obama went global with "yes, we can" and "change we can believe in," he left at least some in the huge crowd in Berlin scratching their heads. Perhaps these Germans, out to hear what all the excitement was about regarding this unusual American presidential candidate, were looking for...

Barack Obama's foreign tour loses him ground back home Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama denied yesterday that he was ignoring the concerns of ordinary Americans while he tours the world, amid signs that the adulation he is receiving abroad has alienated some US voters. After the Democratic presidential candidate holds meetings with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron in London today, the last leg of his nine-day international tour, he returns home to a general election campaign with new polls showing him in a tightening race against John McCain, the Republican candidate. Mr McCain and his surrogates have...

Sen. Barack Obama held a private session with a group of about two dozen Iranian-American donors shortly before a fundraiser this month in California after one of the participants said the Obama campaign would hold such a forum if local Iranian-Americans were able to raise $250,000. The forum -- which was not on Obama's public schedule and was closed to the press -- took place shortly before a fundraiser at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, Calif., on July 13. That was less than a week before Obama's trip to the Middle East, where the U.S. relationship with Iran...