They aren’t even president yet.
Candidates John McCain and Barack Obama should limit their foreign junkets to visiting American troops overseas, and keep their traps shut on the world stage.
Both candidates are embracing the American stereotype of self-aggrandizement by trotting around the globe to meet with heads of state and national leaders, and to test international waters with some diplomatic toe-dipping, unaware, perhaps, that smiling, back-stabbing piranhas, sharks and turncoats lurk below the gleaming surface.
Will Gordon Blair, Nicholas Sarkozy or Ehud Olmert vote for either of them? Will Jordan’s King Abdullah give his favorite a nod at the polls? Will they curry political favor with renegade al-Qaeda militiamen from the Awakening Councils tribal alliance, whose leader Mr. Obama met with in the Iraqi province of Anbar during his recent 10-day trip to Europe and the Middle East?
Mr. McCain’s jaunts to Iraq, Colombia, Mexico and Canada have been to “emphasize his long experience” in foreign policy, while Mr. Obama’s road show is “to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American security, and to consult with close friends and allies.”
A hobnob abroad is one way of accruing undue spotlight – Mr. Obama has said he is “willing to meet with leaders of all nations, friend and foe” – but it does not address the need for the type of federal domestic safeguards that are “critical to American security,” nor has either challenger devised an adequate and cohesive plan for thwarting another worst day for America.
There’s a definite downside to these back-slapping, ego-riddled outings, and Mr. McCain delivered a perfect, ill-pondered example on his spring trip to Iraq, undermining that “experience” when he confused Sunnis with Shiites – and who doesn’t? – but then dug a trench for himself with the clumsy retraction, “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.”
Mr. McCain should know by now – and cram more if he doesn’t – that the Iranian government is, by definition, as extremist as al-Qaeda, and not to be trifled on the stage of evil-mongering.
There’s more to campaigning for the world’s greatest office than posturing, relying on sound-bites and using teleprompters. A sound foreign policy begins at home with a focus on domestic cognizance. In his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For,” Mr. McCain confesses, “…there are still too many claims on my attention to permit more than the briefest excursions down the path of self-awareness.” Hmmm.
Mr. Obama, who said prior to his trip that he was “more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking” smoothly concluded his tour with a sweet speech in front of a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park, but failed to meet with wounded American troops in Germany. Why?
The stakes are super high for the next president of the United States. Haunted and stretched to the limits as this nation is by Islam’s fundamentalists, its next leader will have little choice but to walk a tightrope of emotions and policy while making it clear that America is the world’s superpower because of its freedom and scruples.
For presidential candidates, it’s a job that begins at home.
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