"I believe any partisanship ends at the water's edge," John McCain said when he visited Colombia in early July.
At least that's what McCain believes when he's across the water.
Since Obama departed overseas--on a trip McCain baited him to take--the McCain campaign has sent out a barrage of emails, statements and press clips attacking Obama. I counted five attacks this morning alone, ridiculing Obama for opposing the "surge" in Iraq and supporting a timetable to withdraw combat troops.
The McCain campaign, as my colleague John Nichols noted this morning, is getting desperate.
Obama's brilliantly orchestrated trip abroad has undermined the best rationale for McCain's candidacy: that he'd be the strongest commander-in-chief in a time of war. But now the leader of the country that McCain calls "the central battleground in the war in the struggle against al-Qaeda" has practically endorsed Obama. The Europeans have already made their preference mighty clear.
The world is desperate for a new face of America, one that can rebuild historic alliances, defuse potential enemies and threats, and begin to transcend barriers of race and class. Just like he does at home, Obama signals something new and different and fascinating abroad. His popularity, whether in Baghdad or Berlin--and the McCain campaign's predictably negative response--is refreshing, but not surprising.
To our friends abroad, McCain represents the policies of the past, while Obama embodies what America should--or could--be.
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