McCain: Obama Hasn't Traveled Enough

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, no fan of Sarah Palin, comments on several issues in last night's debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y. Her article is interesting, somewhat insightful, and useful as a starting point to evaluate the confrontation hosted by Bob Schieffer. On this post: trade.

Parker writes

One of the most pecular moments came when McCain suggested that Obama’s understanding of free trade was limited because he hasn’t traveled south of the border. "Free trade with Colombia is something that's a no-brainer," McCain said. "But maybe you ought to travel down there and visit them and maybe you could understand it a lot better.”
Como? This was just plain weird, especially coming from the fellow whose running mate defines foreign policy experience in terms of Vladimir Putin’s head popping into Alaskan airspace. (Note to future presidents: Get your passport today.)

I, too, think it was a little weird- except for almost the opposite of Parker's reason. Sure, Governor Palin is limited in her experience, insight, vision, and travels. But John McCain began (pre-convention) this campaign trying to grab the mantle of "The American president Americans have been waiting for." Although we haven't heard that slogan recently, we have heard from the Repub nominee ask rhetorically, most recently in Albuquerque, N.M., "In short: Who is the real Barack Obama?" For the variation on this theme of the Real American, we had the vice-presidential nominee declare in her acceptance speech (and then on September 5 in Cedarburg, Wisconsin), "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

This might have been a winning hand for McCain, particularly in concert with his ubiquitous reminders, in context and out, that he fought for his country in war and was a prisoner in that conflict. Instead, in the third and final presidential debate, arguably John McCain's last opportunity to change the "narrative," the Arizona senator knocks his opponent for not having been out of the country enough.

Does anyone in the United States of America believe that Barack Obama has traveled less than George W. Bush had at this point in the latter's career? That Barack Obama insufficiently understands the impact of national interrelationships in the global economy? That Barack Obama has not gotten around enough?

John McCain's comment runs counter to the argument- probably provincial, possibly disingenuous, (very) arguably racist, and probably more effective than any other he could have mustered- that Barack Obama is not one of us. And it could be a metaphor for a thoroughly disjointed campaign.