KEY POINTS:
On a helicopter tour over Baghdad, a relaxed Barack Obama was flashing his famous smile at the United States commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, with whom he has sparred in the past.
At the same time, 12,875km away, his presidential rival, John McCain, looked faintly ridiculous riding a golf buggy with George Bush snr near the former President's summer home in Maine.
Asked about the intense spotlight on his rival, McCain shrugged. "It is what it is."
About the time the Illinois senator and an entourage of news anchors who rarely leave their chairs were flying by "Obama One" from Baghdad to Amman in Jordan, McCain's plane was touching down on the Wiggins Airways Tarmac in New Hampshire for another campaign event. The Republican contender was met by a solitary reporter and a photographer.
In the election narrative favoured by US commentators, the Achilles heel of the Democrat candidate is his lack of foreign policy experience. Opponents are watching and waiting for the slightest mis-step.
The McCain campaign is ready to pounce while complaining bitterly about the lavish attention Obama's trip is receiving while only at its mid-point. McCain's handlers have been sending out emails, almost by the hour, attacking Obama's positions, especially on Iraq.
But Obama has proven himself a close scholar of the intricacies of Afghan, Iraqi and Middle Eastern politics. Faced with a barrage of questions at a press conference in Amman yesterday, he effortlessly batted them away. He has yet to put a foot wrong on a trip which aims to establish his credentials as a leader in time of war.
Indeed, so far all the mistakes have been on McCain's side and his campaign is now boiling with frustration. His reputation as a safe pair of hands on foreign policy took a knock when he referred to US troops securing the "Iran-Pakistan border" on ABC's Good Morning America.
McCain came up with another gaffe when asked about Obama's contention that a Sunni revolt against al Qaeda combined with the US troop surge had contributed to the improved security situation in Iraq.
"I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened," McCain told CBS evening news.
"Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheikh and others. And it began the Anbar awakening," McCain said, referring to the US-backed revolt of Sunni sheikhs against al Qaeda in western Anbar province. "I mean, that's just a matter of history."
The problem with McCain's statement - as Obama's campaign quickly noted - was that the awakening got under way before President George W. Bush announced in January 2007 his decision to flood Iraq with tens of thousands of additional US troops to help to combat violence.
In March 2007, before the first of the additional troops began arriving, Colonel John Charlton, the US commander responsible for Ramadi, in Anbar, said the newly friendly sheikhs, combined with an aggressive counterinsurgency strategy and the presence of thousands of new Sunni police on the streets, had helped to cut attacks in the city by half in recent months.
Also damaging to McCain's reputation on national security was the rejection slip he received from the New York Times for an article attacking his rival's plan for withdrawing US forces from Iraq in 16 months.
Relations between the liberal newspaper and McCain are not the best, since it published a widely discredited investigation into an allegedly improper relationship between the candidate and a female lobbyist.
This time America's paper of record asked McCain to redraft the article, requesting revisions to "articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq" and to lay out "a clear plan for achieving victory". It also asked for details of his Afghanistan strategy.
The campaign rebuffed the request, with a spokesman saying: "John McCain believes victory in Iraq must be based on conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables."
Obama, meanwhile, has had a run of good luck. The Iraqi Government bent over backwards to embrace something akin to his plan for the withdrawal of US forces. While McCain lashes out at a novice who cannot be commander-in-chief because he "has no military experience whatsoever", nobody seems to be listening.
Instead, Obama's focus on Afghanistan is adding to the impression that whatever he lacks in experience he makes up for in sound judgment.
McCain's latest ruse to steal back some of the limelight was a leak suggesting he has "narrowed" down his options for a vice-presidential running mate and might make a decision soon.
High on the list is thought to be former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who was his former rival for the nomination.
- INDEPENDENT, AP
