Was Barack Obama's overseas path paved by the 'Great Commoner'?
He was the spellbinder of his generation, able to mesmerize enthusiastic crowds at home and abroad with hon
eyed words spoken by a charismatic politician.
Barack Obama? Maybe.
But more than a century before Obama embarked on his current trip abroad to enhance his foreign policy credentials, another prominent Democrat embarked on an overseas voyage with presidential politics as a backdrop.
In 1906, William Jennings Bryan visited London and gave a widely noted speech in which he presented a plan for peacefully settling international disputes.
He also famously spoke about the responsibilities of more developed nations to aid less-developed countries.
His speech was delivered at the Independence Day banquet of the American Society of London in 1906. Having lost two presidential contests, the Great Commoner, as he was known, was preparing....
...for a third run in 1908. Intriguingly, he was invited to headline the July 4 gathering in England by U.S. Ambassador Whitelaw Reid, a longtime mover and shaker in Republican politics.
Perhaps the courtesy was part of a GOP strategy to help propel a candidate it knew how to beat to another Democratic nomination. Whatever, Bryan again claimed his party's nod and proceeded to get crushed by outgoing President Theodore Roosevelt's handpicked successor, William Howard Taft.
John McCain previously has invoked Bryan when discussing Obama, though he wasn’t referring to overseas travel.
"I believe that people are interested very much in substance," McCain told USA Today. "If it was simply style, William Jennings Bryan would have been president."
Another notable foreign sojourn by a presidential contender featured a politician who could make the trip as part of his official duties. In 1958, then-Vice President Richard Nixon went on a "goodwill" tour of Latin America with the idea of raising his standing for the 1960 general election (he already was the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination).
What was supposed to be an uneventful journey erupted into anti-American violence -- including the Caracas, Venezuela, incident in which an angry mob surrounded his car and began rocking it, shouting "Death to Nixon."
The trip proved political gold at home. Upon his return, Nixon was greeted by 15,000 people at the airport, including President Eisenhower and the entire Cabinet. Politicians of both parties praised his courage.
In this election cycle, Republican presidential contenders Rudolph W. Giuliani and Fred Thompson last year popped over the pond to highlight their diplomatic chops (as well as to raise money). Their stops included visits with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, photo-ops they hoped would polish their credentials with American conservatives (see Giuliani's visit here and Thompson's venture here).
Buddying-up to foreign leaders who are visiting America is another time-honored tactic. McCain, Obama and Hillary Clinton met with Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, when he came to Washington.
Foreign politicians generally don’t use America as a backdrop for campaigning, but there are exceptions. Israeli politicians of all persuasions are common visitors to New York, Florida and other states with large Jewish populations, in part to keep support for their country strong in the U.S.
In Mexico’s 2000 presidential election, Vincente Fox of the PAN and Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the PRD brought their campaigns to selected communities in California and other states with large Latino populations. With absentee balloting not an option, expatriates were urged to either return home to vote or exert their influence with relatives who could vote. Fox won the race, unseating the ruling PRI.
-- Michael Muskal
Photo credit: File photo. For pictures of candidates who've sought to improve their credentials by traveling to a foreign country, go here.
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Obama has no "credentials" on foreign policy...in fact he's known for being completely naive and ignorant.
He wanted to invade Pakistan merely to find Osama but then turned around to offer diplomacy with known terorist nations!
His trip won't teach him anything other than what moron.org wanted him to say in the first place as his constant flip-flopping proves.
Murtha took several trips over there and always came back with the same political agenda of refusing to acknowledge the "surge" worked.
Pelosi took an unconstitutional trip over there and learned absolutely nothing and hurt our position.
So, what on earth makes you think Obama, the teleprompter preacher, could actually learn anything from his trip other than what he wants to pander??
Posted by: Winghunter | July 22, 2008 at 11:59 AM
i like obama to be the president of the us but i think mccain can win the election
Posted by: ming ming | November 03, 2008 at 06:19 PM
i like obama ti become the president of the U.S but i think mccain can winthe election cause he has the ability and ecperience..
Posted by: ming ming | November 03, 2008 at 06:24 PM