Barack Obama’s advisers insist his coming trip abroad is not a campaign swing. Even so, the high-profile journey has all the trappings of a rock-star tour.
The Illinois senator’s trip to Europe and the Middle East has generated so much interest that all three TV network news anchors are planning to accompany the candidate.
Foreign media have reported daily on the impending visit. And the campaign revealed Friday that Obama intends to meet with top U.S. allies.
Obama is surely looking to burnish his foreign policy credentials overseas — but on the back end of it, his superstar persona might get the biggest boost.
“What you’re about to see is enormous publicity,” Democratic strategist Susan Estrich said. “He’s got three anchors coming with him. He’s got the glitterati of the press corps.”
With his visit, the presumptive Democratic nominee is recreating the kind of public whirlwind that he enjoyed at the height of the Democratic primary — only on a global scale.
When John McCain made a similar trip overseas in March, he was accompanied by a few dozen members of the U.S. media. No network anchors made the journey. Granted, it was his eighth visit to Iraq, but it was his first since clinching the GOP nomination, which he had done just days earlier.
This time, the traveling press could dwarf McCain’s entourage. In terms of media frenzies, it’s the difference between a flea circus and the Big Top.
According to the Obama camp, the 40 seats on the campaign plane have already been filled, after 200 reporters applied.
Add to that the security detail that will accompany him.
Unlike McCain, who traveled to Iraq when he was not under the protection of the Secret Service, Obama is going overseas under the watchful eyes of both the Secret Service and foreign law enforcement.
Obama’s advisers stressed Friday that the Illinois senator is not trying to play the role of president.
“The broad goals of the trip are to deepen, even further, important relationships and to exchange views with the leaders in several countries whose partnership with the United States is really critical to our national security,” foreign policy adviser Susan Rice said on a conference call with reporters.
“It is important to note that it is not our intent to make policy or to negotiate. We won’t do so. There is one president of the United States at any given time and we will certainly honor and respect that.”
They rattled off an itinerary that includes meetings with, among others, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
