Obama in Germany

Ross Douthat on Obama's speech in Berlin:

Overall, the overseas tour has been good to Obama, both for the obvious reasons and because making joint appearances with foreign leaders is a solid-enough way to build up his credibility as a potential Commander-in-Chief. But photo ops are one thing, Beatlemania-style rallies are quite another - and having your candidate appear in front of tens of thousands of adoring European fans when your campaign's biggest problem, as John Judis puts it today, is that "Obama remains the 'mysterious stranger' rather than the 'American Adam' to too many voters who are put off rather than attracted by his race and exotic background" strikes me as the height of political folly. The Berlin rally probably won't hurt Obama - voters aren't really paying attention to anything election-related right about now, and it'll be forgotten by the time the fall campaign begins in earnest. But it could do some minor damage, and it certainly won't help him.

I disagree. While I do think that Obama's otherness is a genuine concern for his campaign, one of his other prominent weaknesses is a lack of foreign policy experience. This is a legitimate concern for much of the electorate. And while his trip to Germany is largely ceremonial, it's part of a Middle East tour that is addressing that lack of experience. I don't see how, come the convention and later on into the election, a speech in Germany will be successfully spun against Obama. After all, Germany is one of our largest European allies and foreign policy experience need not be pigeonholed to foreign policy war experience. If that's the case Obama won that argument the day McCain cast his vote to authorize the Iraq war.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008