I think the Obama campaign has just pulled off one of the slickest maneuvers of the race so far. This is a dead time in the campaign; little of interest to the press takes place because the two nominees are selected and the reporters and columnists can only do so much speculation about the V-P nomination. So, what can McCain and Obama do to keep the press interested and the headlines coming?
Obama goes on a world tour, that's what he does. He visits the hot spots in the world that Americans are most concerned about--Afghanistan and Iraq. After that, he goes on a tour of Europe and plans on making a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, just as a few other Americans have done, and some of them were even presidents.
Every visit he makes produces headlines, free of charge. Obama visits world leaders and speaks to large enthusiastic crowds. The press loves it. This sells papers.
And McCain? Well, he sits here alone, complains about all the attention that Obama gets, and attacks Obama on nitpicking issues--who said what about the time of the Surge? Did the Surge begin on one specific day or did it slowly come up to speed. And then he points out that Obama is wrong on Afghanistan, and Obama talks about sending more troops to Afghanistan, and wrong to talk about timetables for withdrawing from Iraq for that gives aid and comfort to the enemy. Meanwhile President Bush talks about sending more troops to Afghanistan. Then President Bush and the Iraqis talk about setting up time tables for withdrawing from Iraq.
McCain really can't do much except bite his fingernails and wish he had a plan to do something like Obama. But it's probably too late because convention time is coming. All he really can do is just wait for the conventions to come and go, and then he and Obama can really get down and have at it.
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