A Trap for Obama

Next week the Illinois senator and presumptive democratic nominee Barack Obama will be overseas instead of campaigning in his own country. Obama's trip includes Jordan, Israel, meeting with the terrorist organization running Palestine, Germany, France, and the UK. Obama has also been pressured to go to Afghanistan for the first time ever and Iraq for only the second time, but the first time since the successful troop surge. It will be up to the Obama campaign to decide how to minimize the damage of visiting or not visiting Iraq and Afghanistan. The McCain campaign has painted Obama into a corner on this one. On one hand, Obama not visiting Iraq/Afghanistan means that he will continue to show his ignorance with foreign policy by making judgments about the situation in these countries without going to the theaters or listening to the commanders on the ground. If Obama does go, however, people will be eying a possible change in strategy for Obama when it comes to our wars on terror. If Obama does not change his mind, he will be viewed as having learned nothing and ignoring the recommendations of the commanders on the ground. This lose-lose situation is up to the Obama campaign to make as less painful as possible. Obama's "World Tour" was decided based on polls such as the Washington Post/ABC News Poll which found that 72% of registered voters thought that McCain had sufficient foreign policy abilities where only 48% said the same of Barack Obama. Clearly, Senator McCain has the upper hand with "Commander and Chief" qualities.