Obama Reaps Benefits of Trip McCain Prodded Him Into

Dem superficially rebuts a superficial claim, drowns out Republican on trail, to boot
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 21, 2008 3:53 PM CDT
Obama Reaps Benefits of Trip McCain Prodded Him Into
U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, left, talks to the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.   (AP Photo/Wathiq Khuzaie, Pool)

John McCain’s campaign made a grave miscalculation by spotlighting Barack Obama’s lack of foreign travel, Noam Scheiber writes in the New Republic, “an incredibly superficial critique” that “can be rebutted incredibly superficially”—see Obama’s current photo-op overseas tour. Hard to believe the Republicans didn’t realize the trip “might become the media event of the season,” Scheiber says.

Where 1990s Democrats tried to paint the GOP as racist, Scheiber concludes, “the McCain campaign made a similar mistake by equating Obama's foreign travel with his fitness to be president. As with the Democrats and Bush, they may have a case to make on the underlying merits. But, if things go according to plan for Obama this week, they will only have helped ensure it won't be heard.” (More Barack Obama stories.)

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