Obama in Afghanistan

Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama is in Afghanistan as part of his European and Middle East trip. If you're a supporter, this is an educational exercise for the nominee, a chance to meet foreign leaders face to face, and judge the situation in Afghanistan and possibly Iraq.

If you are a critic, this is a shameless photo-op and a campaign trip.

But for the nominee, there are upsides and downsides to this trip. The upside is he will likely be greeted in Europe as a conquering hero and the man who will take the presidential oath of office in January of 2009. While relations between the Bush administration and Europe have warmed in recent months, most Europeans consider Barack Obama one of them, perhaps the closest to a western European democrat (small D) that an American candidate has been in some time, even closer than the Democrats' 2004 standard bearer, John Kerry.

In the Middle East, though, it is going to be much more complex (isn't it always?) Iraqis, while welcoming him, have a mixed view. If he indeed pulls out troops on a schedule, despite what is going on on the ground, that could be viewed negatively. Not that Barack would ever say so publicly. But at the same time, Iraqis say they are ready to have the US leave in a less formalized way.

Back at home, Barack has sought to maintain his views on the Iraq war (leaving as soon as practically possible) but insists on building up forces in Afghanistan. Unless the Democratic Party campaign suddenly adopts the Afghanistan war as its own, it could be a difficult (but not impossible) sell to its striden anti-war base.

Interestingly, the polls remain close, at least for now. The results of this trip will also try to get more Americans comfortable with the idea of Barack Obama as commander in chief, so he has to be careful to play the part. It's harder than it sounds, particularly in the Middle East, so the stakes for him are high.

There will be lots of media coverage, all major US network anchors are going which has led the McCain camp to cry double standard. When Senator McCain went on trips to the Middle East, the anchors didn't go along, so why now? Well, it is a little different and Senator Obama is on a maiden voyage of sorts. But obviously, righit now, this election is about him, not Senator McCain, hence the super coverage.

Let's see if this turns into a mushy pr campaign, or if the senator is asked some tough questions about how this will impact his views on the war and what he will do about it as president.