Off to Europe

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: July 17, 2008

Barack Obama is going to Europe.

It’s being treated like the Beatles’ arrival in New York.

Obama will be marinating in a massive mainstream media fishbowl. Included in his entourage will be the anchors of the three network news organizations and dozens of other reporters, writers and photographers for media outlets of all kinds.

Quick: What do you call advertising that candidates get for free?

Come on, everyone together, now: Earned Media!!

From the International Herald-Tribune:

... And while the (three network) anchors are jockeying for interviews with Obama at stops along his route, the regulars on the Obama campaign plane will have new seat mates: star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines who are flocking to catch Obama’s first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive nominee of his party.

The extraordinary coverage of Obama’s trip reflects how the candidate remains an object of fascination in the news media, a built-in feature of being the first African-American presidential nominee for a major political party and a relative newcomer to the national stage.

But the coverage also feeds into concerns in John McCain’s campaign, and among Republicans in general, that the media is imbalanced in their coverage of the candidates, just as aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton felt during the primary season.

Imbalanced? Naaaaah!! The MSM covered McCain’s trips to Iraq, right?

Well, yes ... “in other political news.“ Again from the IHT:

Senator John McCain’s trip to Iraq last spring was a low-key affair: With his ordinary retinue of reporters following him abroad, the NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported on his arrival in Baghdad from New York, with just two sentences tacked onto the “in other political news” portion of his newscast.

Poor McCain is left to complain that Obama is politicizing the trip by planning rallies such as the one expected to take place at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. It’s the equivalent of saying, “Hey, guys! Wait for me! I’m still here!“

SIDEBAR: A word of advice to the McCain camp: If you want to get a message across about your opponent and you hope to use a viral video to do it, it’s probably best that you keep the video under eight minutes. END SIDEBAR

All in all, though, this trip is big news. It’s the first first-hand look Europeans will have at Obama, the first time their press will be able to kick his tires and maybe even test his foreign mettle for themselves.

Sure, you can say it doesn’t really matter what they think, since it isn’t their choice. But if America hopes to retain (regain?) its footing as the world’s last remaining superpower, it has to have a leader worthy of being the leader of the free world—and someone whose leadership abilities have international credibility.

John Dickerson takes a look at the “promise and peril” of the “Obama road show” over at Salon.com:

If it comes off as the campaign hopes, with a steady flow of images of Obama looking thoughtful, diplomatic, and commanding on the world stage, the trip helps Obama address his key weakness, perhaps permanently.

But in risking big, Obama could lose big—through any one of four types of mistakes, as Dickerson explains.

What do you think? Is Obama’s trip justified, or is he being presumptuous? How do you think the Europeans will receive him—and does it matter?