Thursday Morning: Obama to Berlin, McCain Goes Domestic, and No Hula Hoop Photo Ops

Good morning, all. The nation's capital is drying out after a 2.5-inch deluge last night that also brought a much-needed break in the heat. Hallelujah!

Barack Obama departed Israel early this morning after a pre-dawn visit to the Western Wall where he was warmly greeted by a few dozen fans but loudly heckled by one man who repeatedly yelled "Jerusalem is not for sale." The Washington Post sums up the full Israel/Ramallah swing thusly:

Sen. Barack Obama stepped gingerly through the intractable politics of the Middle East on Wednesday, offering resolute support for Israel's security, warning that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be a "game-changing" event for the world, and pledging to make peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians one of his highest priorities if he becomes president.

During the flight to Germany, Obama tried to tamp down expectations of an enormous turnout for his speech at Berlin's Tiergarten Park tonight. German law enforcement has issued a hilariously vague crowd prediction of somewhere between 10,000 and a million. Via Jake Tapper, Obama downplayed that number: "I doubt we're gonna have a million screaming Germans." Asked whether he'd take cues from famous Berlin speeches by Reagan or JFK, Obama ever-so humbly responded, "You know, they were Presidents. I am a citizen." Sure, just an average Joe giving a speech to a million screaming Germans...

Stateside, John McCain has turned his attention to milk-and-butter issues. Yesterday he paused for a photo-op in front of the dairy case (milk: $4/gallon) of a Bethlehem, PA supermarket after joining a local mom for her grocery run. McCain cancelled a visit to an offshore oil rig in Louisiana (with Veep prospect Gov. Bobby Jindal) due to nasty weather from Hurricane Dolly. NPR's Scott Horsley suspects that yesterday's oil spill after a tanker collision in the Mississippi River may have played a role in the change of plans as well. As Scott puts it, "while unrelated to an offshore platform, it might not have been a great visual backdrop for a candidate trying to promote more offshore drilling."

McCain also took a moment yesterday to defend his statement to CBS that the surge caused the "Anbar Awakening" -- which, as we wrote yesterday, actually began before President Bush sent in additional troops. Via Marc Ambinder, McCain considers "surge" to refer to a change in strategy, not just an increase in troop numbers:

McCain said that he was referring to the successful counterinsurgency strategy in the Anbar -- the co-option of the Sunni sheiks -- which provided a model for troops who later surged into the country.

"First of all, a surge is really a counter-insurgency strategy," McCain said.

Today in Columbus, OH, McCain will stick with a domestic focus, meeting with small business owners to talk about jobs and gas prices. According to MSNBC's First Read (whose interpretation of the latest NBC/WSJ poll amounts to a Carvillian: "It's The Economy: Dumba$$") that might not be such a bad plan.

And finally, a little light reading: the Obamas in People Magazine. The takeaways: the girls get $1 allowance in exchange for chores, and "you will never see" Barack Obama hula-hooping.

-- Evie Stone

10:00 AM ET | 07-24-2008 | permalink

comments | | e-mail