Obama's Unprecedented Trip

By Dan Balz
Washington Post

AMMAN -- Toward the end of his interview on CBS's "Face The Nation" on Sunday, Barack Obama was asked by correspondent Lara Logan how much his foreign trip is aimed at allaying doubts about his readiness "to lead a country at war as commander in chief from day one."

The candidate quickly brushed aside the question. The foreign policy experts and U.S. soldiers he had encountered in Afghanistan seemed not to have any doubts, he said. And then he added something far more revealing about how he sees his trip and his own prospects of winning the presidency.

"The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like [Afghan] President Karzai or [Iraqi] Prime Minister Maliki or [French] President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years [italics added]. And it's important for me to have a relationship with them early, that I start listening to them now, getting a sense of what their interests and concerns are."

For a politician just four years out of the Illinois state Senate and a presidential candidate who has not yet officially accepted his party's nomination, it was a telling moment. Others may see foreign policy as a potential weakness in his candidacy, particularly in a contest against John McCain. Obama is not among them. That was revealed even more clearly when Obama expanded on the value of his trip.

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