Barack Obama is taking a trip to the Middle East and Europe to check things out and bolster his foreign affairs résumé along with his National Security credentials.
He really needs to nail this trip with no gaffes, fouls, or penalties. If he comes across as halfway credible in foreign affairs and national security issues, he may just cruise to an election win. These issues are at the top of his weakness list.
If Obama’s excellent adventure has a few mistakes, it may derail the campaign, and if he screws up, there’s a good chance someone will report it. Everyone (and their mothers) appear to be packing their bags to go on the trip.
I can imagine this trip being a lot like a Rolling Stones concert (only instead of semi trucks rolling in, we’ll see plane after plane touch down) with the crowds building like they are waiting for a rock star to hit the first chord on his or her Fender guitar…and the crowd goes wild.
Obama’s opponent, John McCain, has taken several of these trips with little coverage. McCain is not a “rock star” and therefore he does not earn the following that Brian, Charlie and Katie from the networks will give Obama on this summer adventure.
All this attention being paid to Obama’s trip is not all bad for McCain. McCain hopes the cameras will be trained on Obama for every minute of this trip. He hopes that someone may ask Obama a Commander in Chief question that he cannot answer or that Obama might say or do something to anger a foreign leader. Maybe Brian, Katie or Charlie will catch Obama asking one of his advisors a question like, “We still have troops in Europe although World War II ended 60 years ago; whutz up with that?”
Politics are a lot like a poker game and Obama is “all in” with this excellent summer adventure.
The Western Word 
Andy – You are exactly correct – almost everyone has more experience in everything, except community organizing, than Obama. Besides planting a tree for some worthwhile reason, I think a community organizer may be someone who applies for government grants to get paid for a cause that they organize a community to get behind, that the community did not know they needed to organize for, until the community organizer came along and told them they needed to organize – if you get my drift…-Jack
I went to Europe a few years ago. That must mean I have foreign affairs credentials!I’ve also been to Canada and Mexico!I’m as qualified as Obama. Wait, I have not been a “Community Organizer” yet. How do I get into that? And what exactly is that?