By ELISABETH BUMILLER WASHINGTON - President Bush and Senator John McCain have long been in agreement on major elements of American foreign policy, particularly in their approach to the “axis of evil” countries of Iran and North Korea, and their commitment to staying the course in Iraq.
But now the administration’s agreement to consider a “time horizon” for troop withdrawals from Iraq has moved it, at least in the public perception, in the direction of the policies of Senator Barack Obama. That has thrown Mr. McCain on the political defensive in his opposition to a timed withdrawal, Republicans in the party’s foreign party establishment say.
Mr. Bush on the issue.

His reception overseas indicates that world leaders are already looking beyond the current administration and positioning themselves for a new U.S. president.
By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
i leaders who have appeared to be intimate allies of the White House suddenly were saying they wanted the kind of rough deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal that Obama has endorsed -- and Bush has repeatedly rejected.

Shifts in foreign policy have left Republicans debating whether their presidential candidate has lost his footing.
By ELISABETH BUMILLER, New York Times
t Bush and Sen. John McCain have long been in agreement on U.S. foreign policy, particularly their commitment to staying the course in Iraq.

For months the McCain campaign has been attempting to separate him from George Bush and it finally seems to have worked. They must be thrilled with this headline from the NY Times.
Bush and McCain Seem to Diverge in Foreign Policy
s being at odds with the administration is politically advantageous for him is a matter of debate among his supporters, but many of his more conservative advisers do not think it is a bad thing.

By THOMAS PM BARNETT, Scripps Howard News Service Recent diplomatic efforts by the White House with both North Korea and Iran -- nuclear newbies and

By Mohammad Akef Jamal, Special to Gulf News US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki have agreed on a "time horizon" rather

By Warren P. Strobel and Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON - Barack Obama has presented himself to American voters as the candidate of change, but on a weeklong foreign trip that ends Saturday he sounded more like a traditionalist when it comes to foreign policy.
In some cases, the foreign policy middle has shifted Obama's way. His proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq over 16 months no longer seems radical. Iraq's prime minister endorsed it, and even President Bush now agrees that there should be a "time horizon" for some troop withdrawal. Virtually everyone now agrees that more American troops are needed in Afghanistan.
and no military experience,

PARIS, July 25 (UPI) - Mideast peace talks, Iran's nuclear ambitions and climate change were discussed Friday by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in Paris.
"I want to say there's a tremendous convergence of views," Sarkozy said during a joint news conference through an interpreter. "(And) a tremendous sense of impatience or looking forward to the great American democracy choosing its president so that (the United States and Europe) can do things together ... on climate change, on reforming world institutions, on peace in the world, on injecting more ethics into financial capitalism."
y 25 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican U.S. presidential candidate, fired a withering attack against his Democratic rival for his position on the Iraq war.

By Brandon Barker Republicans trying to justify the last eight years have reached a new level of desperation, comparing President George W. Bush to the

The good news is Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama continues to project withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq by mid-2010. The bad news is, he is proposing to transfer a significant number of those troops to Afghanistan.
Obama has repeatedly called for getting out of what he has termed an “unnecessary” war in Iraq in order to refocus on the “real battleground” to eliminate Al Qaeda and win the “battle against terrorism.”
ntation and polarization.

REUTERS/Jim YoungSen. Barack Obama arrives Thursday to deliver a speech at the Victory Column in Tiergarten Park in Berlin.
By Sharon Schmickle
th old friends in Europe after a nasty fallout during this decade.

By CAROLINE GLICK US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama's trip to the Middle East has been a boon for his campaign's photo archive.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama wants to sound like the voice of reason on US foreign policy — the guy who would abandon Bush administration policies he sees

Along with saying that the issue over suspension [of uranium enrichment] has not been touched during the negotiations in Geneva, the political-media policy of the West over these talks was to create of a type of "ultimatum" [punctuation as published here and throughout] atmosphere on Iran's nuclear issue. Through a coordinated measure, Western media immediately, within an hour after the talks were finished, reported a "two-week time frame" for Iran to answer in a Yes or a No on the suspension issue.
The creation of such an atmosphere by the Western media was enough for some [hollow] dreams about direct talks between Iran and America and disputes over America's retreat and...to

"I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war," John McCain said during a Rochester, N.H., town meeting on July 22. "It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign." It was a remarkable statement, as intemperate a personal attack as I've ever heard a major-party candidate make in a presidential campaign, the sort of thing that no potential President of the United States should ever be caught saying. (A prudent candidate has aides sling that sort of mud.) It was also inevitable.
Related Articles
the first U.S. diplomatic presence on Iranian soil since the 1979 hostage crisis.

By JOEL MATHIS and BEN BOYCHUK, Scripps Howard News Service Barack Obama's widely publicized visit to Afghanistan, Iraq and Europe puts renewed focus on the

By Samantha Hayes in Washington, DC Hillary Clinton saw it as Barack Obama's Achilles' heel and called her opponent naive. John McCain is hitting Obama on

BARACK OBAMA’S presidential-style progress through the Middle East and Europe this week stole many headlines (see article). But that should not be allowed to divert attention from some surprising policy shifts by the man who, last time we checked, was still the actual president of the United States. George Bush has just made at least one-and-a-half U-turns in the Middle East. They have serious merit. If he now makes another turn and a half, he may bequeath whoever succeeds him something unexpected: the beginnings of a decent American policy for this troubled region.
Mr Bush’s first U-turn was on Iran. For several years now the world has applied economic sanctions, part of

Barack Obama knows which countries border Iraq; he understands the difference between Shia and Sunni; and he is probably aware that Czechoslovakia no longer exists — but as John McCain complains, the young senator has "no military experience whatsoever." Indeed, like both of the last two presidents, Sen. Obama possesses scant credentials in national security and foreign policy.
or the Democrat is the weak performance of the Republican regime's vaunted "grown-ups," including McCain and his advisers. They have gone far in proving that experience can be overrated.
ial mistake of supporting the invasion on false pretenses. More than once he has displayed the same stubborn

Making it clear that he - not Sen. Barack Obama - is president of the United States, President Bush on Thursday cataloged his administration's efforts to spread democracy and freedom throughout the world and set out the challenges facing the next commander in chief.
Hours before the first-term senator from Illinois was to deliver a speech in Berlin, the president warned that America's "belief in the universality of freedom is being challenged once again."
h those seeking freedom - and never hesitates to shine the light of conscience on abuses of human rights across the world," he said to several hundred members of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

By Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst Do you think I'm stupid? You actually think that during a carefully planned 'high-stakes trip'

There were few cheering crowds when President George W. Bush made a farewell tour of Europe last month, but there will be no shortage of adoration and applause when Senator Barack Obama arrives there this week, at the conclusion of a swing through Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and the West Bank. President Bush drained a deep spring of goodwill towards the United States. The Democrat presidential candidate carries the hopes of many for rebuilding alliances and trust. His tour, less than four months out from the election, suggests Mr Obama is prepared to engage in foreign policy dynamics and detail in a manner that Mr Bush never contemplated.
It is, of course, about far more than

By ANN MARLOWE Afghanistan needs many things, but two more brigades of US troops are not among them. Barack Obama said: "We need more troops,

The world is watching the US election race, but none more keenly than those in the Middle East, where American foreign policy - or the lack of it - has massive repercussions. Bahrain-based weekly business magazine The Gulf looks beyond the rhetoric in its latest issue.
MOST American voters think that Iran is an Arab country. A significant minority believe that Barack Obama, the senator for Illinois and Democratic Party candidate for the presidency, is a closet fundamentalist Muslim.
anian or Iraqi policies on a daily basis.

By Matthew Benjamin and Heidi Przybyla July 21 (Bloomberg) - When George W. Bush became president in 2001, his main goals included restoring ``honor and dignity to the White House'' after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, raising school-test scores and figuring out how to spend a record budget surplus.
The next White House occupant will inherit the deepest housing recession in a generation, growing fears of bank failures, a sinking dollar, $4 gasoline and an economy bleeding jobs. He'll confront wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mounting tensions with Iran and the U.S.'s flagging international reputation.
porate and individual tax reductions and energy-independence plan -- will likely be put on hold while the president focuses on more immediate concerns, especially the economy.