U.S. ELECTIONS | Guide to the 2008 Election
15 July 2008
Presidential Candidates’ Foreign Trips Matter
Political experts analyze reasons for Obama, McCain trips
Washington -- Foreign trips by U.S. presidential candidates are more significant in 2008 than in previous American presidential campaigns, several political experts tell America.gov.
Andrew Bennett, professor of government at Georgetown University, said the trips are particularly important in this presidential cycle because of the perceived “gap in experience” between the presumed Republican Party candidate, Arizona Senator John McCain, and his presumed Democratic opponent, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
Even though the U.S. economy currently is ranked as the top issue for U.S. voters, “foreign policy could always leap right back” as the highest priority, he said. As evidence, Bennett cited the deaths of nine U.S. soldiers on July 13 in Afghanistan, the highest number of American military personnel killed in a single day in that country since 2005.
McCain used his trips to Iraq, Colombia, Mexico and Canada to “emphasize his long experience” dealing with foreign affairs in the U.S. Senate and his prior U.S. military service, Bennett said.
The downside of the trips for McCain, he said, were misstatements he made during his visit to Iraq, when he misidentified the Moslem sect Iran is accused of supporting in Iraq.
“That doubly hurts” McCain “because it cuts across the message that he’s trying to send” on his experience and knowledge of foreign policy, Bennett said.
Bennett, who has worked on several Democratic presidential campaigns but is not involved in the 2008 race, said some saw McCain’s timing for visiting Colombia and Mexico in July as “ill considered” because the troubled state of the U.S. economy then was dominating the news headlines.
“Obama was setting out to define himself and McCain might have been better served by staying in the United States at that point,” Bennett said.
Bennett said some analysts attribute McCain’s victory in the Republican presidential primaries, in part, to the December 2007 assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. (See “Bhutto Assassination Condemned by World Leaders.”)
“It reminded people that you wanted somebody” with McCain’s experience in foreign policy, Bennett said. He added that foreign policy was “way down on the agenda” in the 2000 presidential race but it rose following the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Bennett said Obama needs to show on his international travel “some more facility and experience in foreign affairs. So it’s more important for him [than McCain] to get overseas and visit Iraq, in particular.
“There’s a potentially bigger upside” for Obama if he does well on his trip, Bennett said. The downside is if he suffers a gaffe like that of McCain’s in Iraq. Such a mistake would be much more damaging to Obama because it would add to the idea he lacks foreign affairs experience, he said.
INTERNATIONAL PERCEPTIONS IMPORTANT TO U.S. VOTERS
Charlie Cook, of cook.political.com, said Obama and McCain are in “vastly different situations” politically “but sometimes that creates similar actions.”
McCain wants to spotlight his strong suit in foreign policy and national security, as opposed to the economy and domestic problems, said Cook, the editor and publisher of the Washington-based Cook Political Report.
Regarding McCain’s trips to Colombia and Mexico, Cook said McCain needs to increase his support among America’s Hispanic voters “who have grown estranged from the Republican Party over the immigration issue, though McCain's own positions are not nearly as problematic with Hispanic voters as his party's,” Cook said.
He said Obama “needs to address a perception that foreign policy is his weakness and reassure voters that he is knowledgeable and demonstrate a competence” in that area.
“Americans seem more aware of and sensitive to how our country is perceived around the world than any time in modern history,” Cook said, adding that Americans “realize that we cannot go it alone and that a successful foreign policy is dependent upon close working relationships, cooperation and trust between nations.”
FOREIGN TRAVEL LENDS GRAVITAS
Nathan Gonzales, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report in Washington, said both major candidates are “doing their best to appear presidential.”
Gonzales said “traveling the world and meeting with world leaders” projects an “aura of the presidency that’s different from walking” in a parade on the Fourth of July (U.S. Independence Day).
One potential pitfall of international travel, Gonzales said, is that extended stays overseas might prompt voters to “wonder why [the candidates] weren’t focusing on what’s happening within our borders.”
But, with U.S. presidential campaigns “getting longer and longer, I don’t think there are a lot of people crying” for the candidates to campaign more, he said.
Another risk is that foreign visits could be portrayed as being “too political. But I don’t know if the casual voter is psychoanalyzing the trips,” Gonzales said.
For additional information, see “How Will Candidates Explain Stances on Meeting Hostile Leaders?” and “Candidates on the Issues.”
