Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post wrote the following about new polls showing the American people approving of Obama's trip abroad:
Before the White House begins celebrating the political success of this trip, however, it's important to remember two caveats.Okay, first off, just because George Bush was an idiot doesn't mean that the American people might not sincerely like the way Obama is handling himself as president. It's not at all clear that the world would have been happy had we elected John McCain president - and I'll bet they were laughing along with us at Sarah Palin. So let's not chalk George Bush up as some kind of anomaly. And even if he were, which he isn't, that doesn't preclude Obama from actually being good, and people recognizing that fact.
First, former president George W. Bush was so despised by much of the world that an improvement in the way that America is seen by the rest of the world was almost inevitable once he left office. (The Post/ABC survey showed a whopping 61 percent of voters believed that America's image in the world had worsened under Bush.)
Second, first appearances are not necessarily lasting. Remember back to the campaign when Obama received rave reviews for his tour of Europe including over the moon analysis of his address to several hundred thousand people in Berlin.
But, the trip quickly turned sour -- from a political perspective -- as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) used the footage of thousands of cheering Germans to paint Obama as an empty celebrity, a tag that stuck for the better part of a month and slowed the Democratic candidate's momentum.
Second point, yes, McCain pulled the celebrity card on Obama and made his previous successful trip abroad into a bad thing. But what are we really saying here? That we should be careful with polls showing the public approving of Obama's handling of his foreign trips because the Republicans might smear Obama and trick the public into thinking the trips were really bad? Well, sure, they might. But that might happen any day, on any issue. Republicans lie. It's in their nature. (See our Rick Warren post below). That doesn't mean that when Democrats shine, we shouldn't give them credit.
