Obama aides said they spent months on groundwork for the trip, including conversations with Israeli officials explaining his positions on Iran and other issues. "Senior advisors to Sen. Obama stay in regular contact with Israeli officials, especially through the Israeli Embassy in Washington," said Susan Rice, an Obama aide.
The trip was not flawless. There were gaffes ranging from verbal slips (Obama declared that "Israel is a strong friend of Israel's") to the last-minute cancellation of a visit to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. And some critics scorned Obama's speech in Berlin as more poetry than substance.
But even GOP political operatives viewed the journey as a technical success, if only because it enabled Obama to dominate campaign coverage, especially on television.
On the day of Obama's Berlin speech, McCain's campaign planned to fly its candidate to a Gulf of Mexico oil platform to provide a dramatic picture of the Republican denouncing his rival's opposition to offshore drilling. But Hurricane Dolly forced McCain to cancel the trip; an aide said it would be rescheduled.
"If McCain had been able to do that event, it would have been a home run," mourned Reed.
Mostly, McCain spent the week peppering his foe with criticism.
He complained that Obama opposed the "surge" in U.S. troops in Iraq that allowed the Maliki government to call for an early withdrawal. He charged: "Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."
On Saturday, in his new weekly radio address, McCain sarcastically said: "With all the breathless coverage from abroad, and with Sen. Obama now addressing his speeches to 'the people of the world,' I'm starting to feel a little left out. Maybe you are too."
But he also scored Obama on specifics. "I wonder if he noticed while he was in France that they draw 80% of their electricity from nuclear energy," McCain said.
Reed said: "The secret of any campaign is control over the terms of the debate, and both campaigns are still struggling to get control," Reed said. "For Obama, it's defining McCain as the third term of George W. Bush. For McCain, it's defining Obama as unprepared to lead. It's really that simple."
He added: "There shouldn't be any panic in McCain World. There's no question that Obama won the week. But there are a lot more weeks ahead."
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doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com
michael.finnegan@ latimes.com
McManus reported from Washington and Finnegan reported from the Obama campaign in London. Times staff writers Richard Boudreaux, Peter Nicholas, Maeve Reston and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.
