Overseas, Obama campaign machine is as sprawling and seamless as it is on its home turf

[dkf]

JERUSALEM – Democrat Barack Obama doesn’t travel light.

Halfway around the world, the Obama campaign machine appears as sprawling and seamless as it is on its home turf. As the presumptive Democratic nominee tours five countries in five days, he brings an entourage that would make a pop star envious.

A dozen top foreign policy advisers are either traveling with Obama or doing ground work ahead of his arrival in each country. This group is supplemented by his usual contingent of almost a dozen traveling aides, including chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and communications director Robert Gibbs, and too many advance staff to count. With layers of Secret Service agents, they zipped through Amman Tuesday in a motorcade of 20 vehicles.

The mix of policy and political advisers reflects the split dimension of the senator’s tour through Europe and the Middle East: Even as his closest aides insist that the trip is a fact-finding and relationship-building mission, Obama’s every step is being intricately managed to maximize political advantage.

From the saturated media coverage to the one-on-one meetings with heads of state, the trip already had a White House feel. The scope of the traveling staff simply adds to an aura of a president-in-waiting. On Tuesday, aides attempted to invoke White House rules and traditions by requiring reporters to withhold the names of senior advisers who brief the press. But they were reminded twice by reporters that they were not in the White House, and Obama was not president.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11977.html

[blm]

1. This trip was also quietly prepped in June.....

John Kerry did a very low-profile trip to Europe and the Mideast then, and met with all the leaders who are now part of Obama's trip.

It's working out well.

[dkf]

2. I'm very happy with the organization and preparation he puts into these things.

McCain looks more like he flies by the seat of his pants. I can't imagine him trying to create solutions with our "enemies". He can't even control his temper when speaking about Obama.

[blm]

3. Yep - Obama is being well-served in this campaign. McCain can't exactly tap BushInc this goround

and have 95% of the media protecting him the way Bush had. Heck, McCain has 75% of the corpmedia protecting him now, and Dems can overcome that gap. ;)