WASHINGTON--U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (Dem., Ill.), whose long-shot White House bid was propelled by his early opposition to the invasion of Iraq, visited American forces there Monday on a high-stakes international tour that he portrays as a prelude to his presidency.As he began the trip designed to bolster his foreign policy credentials, the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee talked to CBS from Kabul Sunday as though his election--and re-election--were foregone conclusions.
“The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with [leaders] who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years,” Sen. Obama said on “Face the Nation.”
“It’s important for me to have a relationship with them early,” he said, “that I start listening to them now, getting a sense of what their interests and concerns are.”
He said that is important “because one of the shifts in foreign policy that I want to execute as president is giving the world a clear message that America intends to continue to show leadership, but our style of leadership is going to be less unilateral.”
“I think this gives me a head start in that process,” he said.
Sen. Obama called the situation in Afghanistan “precarious and urgent;” evidence, he said, that the decision to invade Iraq was “a strategic error” that distracted attention from the key battleground against al-Qaeda.
The presidential candidate’s unannounced visit to Afghanistan and Iraq began an itinerary that will take him to eight countries across five time zones and a distance of 16,000 miles.
He is meeting with heads of state, being trailed in the Middle East and Europe by dozens of journalists, and delivering a public address in Berlin on Thursday with a Prussian victory column as a backdrop.
German newspapers predict a crowd of as many as 100,000 for the speech at Tiergarten Park.
One goal of the trip is to quell doubts about whether the 46-year-old, first-term senator has the background and skills to handle national security concerns in a post-9/11 world of shifting alliances and terrorist threats.
The risk is that a misstep could enhance those doubts or an overstep create a backlash.
“He’s got to demonstrate that he’s really capable, because unlike when Gov. [Bill] Clinton ran, this is not just ‘the economy, stupid,’ ” said Thomas “Mack” McLarty, who served as White House chief of staff after Mr. Clinton won the presidency in a 1992 campaign focused on pocketbook issues.
“If people feel he’s got what it takes and he represents our country in a way we feel good about, that will help him,” Mr. McLarty added. “On the other hand, if he makes a gaffe, that could really give Sen. McCain an opening.”
The Republican National Committee suggested Sen. Obama’s comments Sunday were cocky, spotlighting them as part of its campaign, “Audacity Watch,” and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called the Democratic candidate naive and untested on foreign affairs.
“John McCain is the man with the experience,” Mr. Giuliani told reporters at Yankee Stadium, with the presumptive Republican nominee by his side for a game against the Oakland Athletics.
On Saturday, Sen. McCain ridiculed Sen. Obama for making up his mind about how to proceed in Iraq and Afghanistan before meeting with combat commanders and seeing the situation there firsthand.
The senator from Illinois visited Iraq in 2006, but was making his first trip to Afghanistan.
Sen. McCain (Rep., Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has made multiple trips to both war zones.
“In a time of war, the commander in chief’s job doesn’t get a learning curve,” Sen. McCain said in his weekly radio address.
Even so, Sen. Obama won a boost over the weekend when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in an interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel, embraced the Democrat’s proposal to pull most American combat troops from Iraq over 16 months.
While not endorsing Sen. Obama, Prime Minister Maliki called the plan “the right time frame for a withdrawal.”
Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi spokesman, said later that the Iraq prime minister’s comments were not “conveyed accurately” and shouldn’t be seen as a sign of a support for a presidential candidate.
When he left Andrews U.S. Air Force Base in Maryland on Thursday, Sen. Obama was asked by reporters if he planned to deliver tough talk to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Prime Minister Maliki about acting more decisively to strengthen their regimes.
Sen. Obama said he was “more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking,” and added, “I think it is very important to recognize that I’m going over there as a senator.
“We have one president at a time, so, it’s the president’s job to deliver those messages.”
By Sunday, Sen. Obama was offering public advice to the man he wants to succeed.
In Kabul, he warned that President George W. Bush couldn’t afford to wait to begin planning to move some troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
“It’s important for us to begin planning for those brigades now,” said Sen. Obama, who has called for sending about 7,000 more troops.
Sen. Obama was accompanied to Afghanistan on Friday and Saturday by two other senators--Jack Reed (Dem., R.I.) and Chuck Hagel (Rep., Neb.)--both critics of the Iraq invasion and both mentioned as potential running mates--as a congressional delegation traveling on an air force plane.
Though Sen. Obama had announced plans to visit Afghanistan and Iraq at some point, the timing of the trip was not released beforehand for security reasons.
Sen. Obama’s campaign has chartered a plane for the rest of the trip this week to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England.
The trip already has produced photographs and video of the presidential candidate shooting hoops with American troops in Kuwait, eating Sunday breakfast with American forces in Afghanistan, being briefed by military commanders at Bagram U.S. Air Force Base and sitting down in facing armchairs with President Karzai.
Sen. Obama’s delegation toured eastern Afghanistan by helicopter, eyeing the mountainous frontier near Pakistan that has seen a recent upsurge in Taliban activity.
In Iraq, he’s expected to meet with Gen. David Petraeus, the top United States commander.
The images could help Sen. Obama as he campaigns back home.
“Being able to deal on an international stage is really a threshold issue for presidential candidates,” said Dotty Lynch, a former pollster who teaches at American University in Washington.
In two hours of talks with President Karzai at his palace, Sen. Obama pledged to continue aid to Afghanistan and vowed to pursue the war on terror “with vigor” if elected. He chided President Karzai for not doing more to build confidence in his government.
American Embassy spokesman Mark Stroh said the senators discussed a variety of issues, including corruption, the security situation and the task of rebuilding the country’s government and economy.
President Karzai’s spokesman said Sen. Obama’s message was positive.
“Sen. Obama conveyed that he is committed to supporting Afghanistan and to continue the war against terrorism with vigor,” said Humayun Hamidzada.
Democrats and Republicans “are friends of Afghanistan,” the spokesman said, “and no matter who wins the U.S. elections, Afghanistan will have a very strong partner in the United States.”
Sen. Obama’s need to take his campaign overseas is, in some ways, a result of his own success.
Four years ago, he was a member of the Illinois Legislature.
His rapid rise to the pinnacle of national politics has left some gaps in his résumé, particularly on national security. In contrast, Sen. McCain is a former navy pilot, Vietnam prisoner of war and the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Armed Services.
In the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll, 80 percent of those surveyed said Sen. McCain could handle the responsibilities of commander in chief; 55 percent said that of Sen. Obama.
Last year, Democratic Senate leaders tapped Sen. Obama to head a subcommittee on Europe, but he has presided over only one hearing.
Like Sen. McCain, he has spent most of the past 18 months on the campaign trail.
That makes this week’s trip a crash course on foreign hot spots and international alliances.
The leaders Sen. Obama is scheduled to meet with include Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Israeli President Shimon Peres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Experts predict a rapturous reception for Sen. Obama in Europe, where there’s widespread disaffection with President Bush’s foreign policy.
“For Europeans, Barack Obama signals change,” said Karen Donfried of the German Marshall Fund.
She cited a recent poll by the European-based marketing firm, EMNID, that showed 72 percent of Germans say Sen. Obama would be a better president than Sen. McCain.
That popularity abroad could help Sen. Obama among Americans, too, said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “It will demonstrate that, with him as president, the United States of America will be respected abroad again,” he said.
“That will come through loud and clear.”
