http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/0...al-as-overseas-trip-shifts-to-campaign-event/
Aides Try to Cast Obama as Presidential as Overseas Trip Shifts to Campaign Event
by FOXNews.com
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Now that Barack Obama has left Afghanistan and Iraq, where he was part of a congressional delegation, and is visiting the Middle East and Europe as a presidential candidate, most everything he does is being viewed through the prism of the race for the White House.
Heading to Berlin later in the week, Obama will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and others. He is set to give a speech Thursday near the historic Brandenburg Gate, where Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy all spoke. Obama’s speech could be delivered before tens of thousands of people.
Advisers describe the address as a non-campaign rally speech, but the historical allusions have not been lost on the public, and advisers could not say whether footage of the event would be used in a campaign commercial.
“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.”
That answer prompted a reporter to remind the adviser: “But he is not president of the United States.”
“It will not be a speech about campaign issues,” an adviser said. “He’s not going to address campaign issues in terms of other candidates, it is not a speech about American politics, and so it’s not a campaign event. We’re not trying to recruit support from the crowds that are coming. It’s not a campaign event.
“The point of the outdoor rally is that the senator wants to speak directly to our allies and to the people of Europe and the people of the world and it would be inconsistent to do that and try to limit the attendance for that event. There’s a great deal of interest in his visit. We want to accommodate that interest.”
The Berlin speech is just the first of several events overseas that have led to questions about Obama’s ability to walk the line between presidential candidate and self-appointed negotiator.
After visiting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Obama issued a statement saying Maliki “stated his hope that U.S. combat forces could be out by 2010.”
“The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq, including their numbers and missions,” Obama said in a joint statement with Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who traveled with him to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama also then told ABC News that he still doesn’t support the surge.
“These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20/20. But I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with,” he said.
John McCain’s camp suggested the Democratic candidate is overstepping his bounds.
“Barack Obama admitted tonight that he would rather see failure in Iraq than concede that he was wrong about the surge. A candidate who places his political ambition ahead of our national interest does not pass the threshold to be commander in chief,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
Obama’s statement also drew ire from the White House, where Press Secretary Dana Perino suggested that talk of a 2010 timetable was part of the Iraqi government’s public negotiating stance as Washington and Baghdad struggle over an agreement that would define the U.S. role in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
“We don’t think that talking about specific negotiating tactics or your negotiating position in the press is the best way to negotiate a deal,” she said. “I don’t know what aspirational time horizon is going to end up in the final agreement. We’re not going to negotiate here from the podium — it obviously doesn’t work.”
Obama also stepped into a diplomatic minefield over the status of Jerusalem, after he told the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee in May that he supports an undivided Jerusalem capital, an issue that is at the heart of final negotiations between Israel and Palestinians for a two-state solution.
Speaking to reporters from Amman, Jordan, ahead of Obama’s trip to Israel on Tuesday, aides made clear that they don’t rule out a dual-capital status for Israel and a future Palestinian state. Advisers said Obama has said repeatedly that Jerusalem is a final status issue to be negotiated by both parties. That said, Obama believes it should remain Israel’s capital and the should not be divided by “barbed wire and checkpoints.”
Obama supports moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the aides added, but noted that the language at AIPAC was not “optimal phrasing,” although not a substantive change in his position.
Even as the issues demonstrate the difficulty Obama faces trying to be a presidential candidate abroad, the campaign stressed that the purpose of this trip was not to set policy or to negotiate, but to have a dialogue with leaders on issues.
Still, after a trip to the Citadel in Amman, a location of historical and cultural significance in Jordan, Obama was to have a private meeting with King Abdullah and then dine with the king and Queen Rania, as well as the Jordanian ambassador to the U.S. and the director of the General Intelligence Directorate, among others.
Aides said they expected the dinner group to discuss a multitude of issues, including the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, regional security, Iraqi refugees and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The campaign noted that it requested the meeting with the king, but the Jordanians “bent over backwards” to make it happen. King Abdullah canceled a dinner and speech in Aspen, Colo., to return home on Monday night.
As previously noted, the aides said Obama spoke to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about this trip but the campaign did not ask for a specific briefing on current status of talks in the Middle East.
FOX News’ Major Garrett and Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.
Aides Try to Cast Obama as Presidential as Overseas Trip Shifts to Campaign Event
by FOXNews.com
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Now that Barack Obama has left Afghanistan and Iraq, where he was part of a congressional delegation, and is visiting the Middle East and Europe as a presidential candidate, most everything he does is being viewed through the prism of the race for the White House.
Heading to Berlin later in the week, Obama will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and others. He is set to give a speech Thursday near the historic Brandenburg Gate, where Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy all spoke. Obama’s speech could be delivered before tens of thousands of people.
Advisers describe the address as a non-campaign rally speech, but the historical allusions have not been lost on the public, and advisers could not say whether footage of the event would be used in a campaign commercial.
“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.”
That answer prompted a reporter to remind the adviser: “But he is not president of the United States.”
“It will not be a speech about campaign issues,” an adviser said. “He’s not going to address campaign issues in terms of other candidates, it is not a speech about American politics, and so it’s not a campaign event. We’re not trying to recruit support from the crowds that are coming. It’s not a campaign event.
“The point of the outdoor rally is that the senator wants to speak directly to our allies and to the people of Europe and the people of the world and it would be inconsistent to do that and try to limit the attendance for that event. There’s a great deal of interest in his visit. We want to accommodate that interest.”
The Berlin speech is just the first of several events overseas that have led to questions about Obama’s ability to walk the line between presidential candidate and self-appointed negotiator.
After visiting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Obama issued a statement saying Maliki “stated his hope that U.S. combat forces could be out by 2010.”
“The prime minister said that now is an appropriate time to start to plan for the reorganization of our troops in Iraq, including their numbers and missions,” Obama said in a joint statement with Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who traveled with him to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama also then told ABC News that he still doesn’t support the surge.
“These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult. Hindsight is 20/20. But I think what I am absolutely convinced of is that at that time, we had to change the political debate, because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one that I just disagreed with,” he said.
John McCain’s camp suggested the Democratic candidate is overstepping his bounds.
“Barack Obama admitted tonight that he would rather see failure in Iraq than concede that he was wrong about the surge. A candidate who places his political ambition ahead of our national interest does not pass the threshold to be commander in chief,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
Obama’s statement also drew ire from the White House, where Press Secretary Dana Perino suggested that talk of a 2010 timetable was part of the Iraqi government’s public negotiating stance as Washington and Baghdad struggle over an agreement that would define the U.S. role in Iraq beyond the end of the year.
“We don’t think that talking about specific negotiating tactics or your negotiating position in the press is the best way to negotiate a deal,” she said. “I don’t know what aspirational time horizon is going to end up in the final agreement. We’re not going to negotiate here from the podium — it obviously doesn’t work.”
Obama also stepped into a diplomatic minefield over the status of Jerusalem, after he told the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee in May that he supports an undivided Jerusalem capital, an issue that is at the heart of final negotiations between Israel and Palestinians for a two-state solution.
Speaking to reporters from Amman, Jordan, ahead of Obama’s trip to Israel on Tuesday, aides made clear that they don’t rule out a dual-capital status for Israel and a future Palestinian state. Advisers said Obama has said repeatedly that Jerusalem is a final status issue to be negotiated by both parties. That said, Obama believes it should remain Israel’s capital and the should not be divided by “barbed wire and checkpoints.”
Obama supports moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the aides added, but noted that the language at AIPAC was not “optimal phrasing,” although not a substantive change in his position.
Even as the issues demonstrate the difficulty Obama faces trying to be a presidential candidate abroad, the campaign stressed that the purpose of this trip was not to set policy or to negotiate, but to have a dialogue with leaders on issues.
Still, after a trip to the Citadel in Amman, a location of historical and cultural significance in Jordan, Obama was to have a private meeting with King Abdullah and then dine with the king and Queen Rania, as well as the Jordanian ambassador to the U.S. and the director of the General Intelligence Directorate, among others.
Aides said they expected the dinner group to discuss a multitude of issues, including the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, regional security, Iraqi refugees and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The campaign noted that it requested the meeting with the king, but the Jordanians “bent over backwards” to make it happen. King Abdullah canceled a dinner and speech in Aspen, Colo., to return home on Monday night.
As previously noted, the aides said Obama spoke to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about this trip but the campaign did not ask for a specific briefing on current status of talks in the Middle East.
FOX News’ Major Garrett and Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.