It’s hard to imagine how Barack Obama’s week-long international excursion could have gone much better. But as Obama heads home, there are a handful of questions at the fore: Did the trip help? Do voters care? Will the effects of the trip linger?
The LA Times’ report notes that Obama “conquered” the Middle East and Europe, but he returns “to face a more challenging battleground: middle America.” The WaPo report struck a similar note, describing the excursion as “a clear success, with meticulously planned and deftly executed events designed to beam back images to the United States of a politician comfortable on the world stage. What isn’t measurable is whether it worked.”

WHITE House hopeful Barack Obama returned home yesterday from his adulation-soaked foreign tour but immediately faced a new assault from rival John McCain over his cancellation of a visit to wounded US troops in Germany.
Before departing London the Democratic Party candidate played down the potential gains the trip might have for him in the presidential race.
hink there have been nine different excuses out of Barack Obama's campaign as to why that trip and that visit never took place, and all of them fundamentally ignore one fact, which is that he couldn't make time in his schedule to meet with wounded combat troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan," Senator McCain's spokesman, Tucker Bounds, told Fox News.

By George E. Condon Jr. WASHINGTON – For a campaign taking place amid a housing crisis, soaring gas prices and a declining stock market, there's been an

Sunday morning starts with a new ad from Republican John McCain's presidential campaign that says he's "always there for our troops" and clearly implies that Democratic isn't.
The 30-second spot, which McCain's team says will be on the air in "key states" and is the second in the past 10 days to question Obama's "support" for U.S. troops, isn't worthy of the Republican senator, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor says in a statement he's sent to reporters:

By VOA News US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is returning his campaign's focus to the domestic economy, after a nine-day trip abroad,

By DOYLE McMANUS and MICHAEL FINNEGA By The Day London - Barack Obama conquered the Middle East and Europe last week, but on Saturday he returned to face a more challenging battleground: middle America.
Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, wrapped up his week-long overseas tour with an acknowledgment that - for all the television coverage his travels from Afghanistan to Britain received - he was anxious to get back to domestic issues.
ay, after their candidate spends Sunday in his hometown of Chicago following a his roughly 16,000-mile journey.

BY LYNN SWEET blogs.suntimes.com/sweet LONDON - Standing in front of No. 10 Downing Street after meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday his overseas campaign swing showed "people at home, but also leaders abroad, some sense of where an Obama administration might take our foreign policy."
If this sneak preview of an Obama presidency strikes some as presumptuous, the strategy was to tell the story -- illustrated by dramatic photo ops in the Middle East and Europe -- that there is a place for Obama on the world stage.
Cameron, Obama said he might take a week off in August.

By CHARLES BABINGTON AP Writer HUDSON, Wis. - Every presidential campaign has its hitches. For John McCain, they felt more like full-blown lurches this week, with nearly every step forward quickly offset by a misstatement or wisecrack that seemed to blow his message off course.
It was the week McCain hoped to show off his newly focused, smoother-running operation after he rearranged his campaign hierarchy and acknowledged errors in the staging of events and other matters.
at, from time to time, some words of mine will be taken out of context," he told reporters Friday. "I'm not going to change the way our campaign is."

Barack Obama dominates the overall fund-raising map in 43 states and the nation's capital -- even raising more money last month in Arizona than John McCain -- records show.
h in his campaign. Overall, McCain had $26 million in cash at the end of June. Obama had $71 million at the end of the month.
as 527s for the section of the tax code that governs their activity.

By Ted Shelsby On the farm With this in mind, officials of the American Farm Bureau Federation invited presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain

LONDON - By almost every measure, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's overseas tour was a clear success, with meticulously planned and deftly executed events designed to beam back images to the United States of a politician comfortable on the world stage.
What isn't measurable is whether it worked.
ive Republican nominee John McCain on an almost hourly basis. Their consensus was the week turned into a near-rout for Obama.

His overseas trip was a success, analysts from both parties agree. But rival John McCain is building an assault on the domestic issue of energy.
By Doyle McManus and Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
week for Obama," said Christopher F. Gelpi, an expert on public opinion at Duke University. "But it will be another week or so before we see if he got a bounce."

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in an interview published on Saturday the size of a residual US force

by FOXNews.com Barack Obama said Saturday that his weeklong trip to Europe and the Middle East only reinforced his foreign policy views, telling FOX News