TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
McCain's Trip Abroad Doubles As Audition On The World Stage
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Published: March 23, 2008
PARIS - Sen. John McCain's trip abroad last week - which took him from the Middle East to No. 10 Downing St. to the Elysee Palace here - was more than just a congressional fact-finding trip, or even a candidate's attempt to appear statesmanlike.
It was also an audition on the world stage for McCain in his role as the Republican Party presidential nominee. And it offered McCain the chance to begin testing his oft-stated hope that as president he would be able to repair America's tattered reputation abroad by shifting course on some of the policies that have alienated its allies - in areas like global warming and torture - even as he continues to embrace what much of the world sees as the most-hated remnant of the Bush presidency: the war in Iraq.
At several stops along the trip, McCain struck a markedly different tone from that of President Bush.
Bush is so unpopular, even with America's allies, that people in Britain and France told pollsters last spring that they had even less confidence in him to do the right thing in world affairs than they had in President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
McCain spoke in Britain and France about the need to take action to reduce global warming, a welcome stance in much of Europe, which has accused Bush of doing too little in that area.
He also denounced torture and repeated his call to close the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that has sparked outrage around the world.
Analysts Question New Tone
But some analysts question whether a new tone, however welcome, and the adoption of a few policies that are more in line with the rest of the world would be enough by themselves to improve America's image, given the searing unpopularity of the Iraq war - which McCain strongly supports - in much of the world.
"In terms of public opinion, I think the war in Iraq is paramount," said Nicole Bacharan, an expert on the United States at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.
James M. Goldgeier, a political scientist who studies trans-Atlantic relations at the Council on Foreign Relations, said of McCain: "There are positions that he's taken that are very different from that of the Bush administration, and sound much better to European ears, on climate change and torture.
"But then you've got Iraq," Goldgeier said.
The precipitous decline in America's reputation abroad - after no unconventional weapons were found in Iraq and the revelations about abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, among other issues - is underscored by a series of surveys conducted overseas by the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
It is an issue that resonates with some voters back home; McCain often is asked on the campaign trail what he would do to restore America's reputation.
Europe Focused On Democrats
Now, as the world takes McCain's measure, one of the questions people are likely to grapple with is much like one of the questions voters in the United States have been asking: To what extent would a President McCain represent a break from Bush's policies, and to what extent would he be the continuation of them?
Some of McCain's differences with Bush are clear; others go unspoken. Unlike Bush, who hardly traveled abroad before he ran for president, McCain has been to all corners of the world. At nearly every stop last week, he was greeted at the formal photo-ops by local officials as an old friend.
But McCain remains perhaps the biggest booster of the unpopular Iraq war (though he was critical of the Bush administration's conduct of it before last year). How he winds up being viewed abroad, as at home, most likely will depend on what happens there. At nearly every stop last week McCain told listeners that the situation in Iraq was improving, and that "al-Qaida is on the run, but not defeated."
But, as at home, the hotly contested Democratic primary is garnering more attention in Europe than the Republican nominee, and the Democrats are widely seen as offering the prospect of a more significant break from the Bush years.
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