Obama takes his message to the rest of the world

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-19  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AS United States Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama prepares for a major trip to Europe and the Middle East, a poll released yesterday shows his supporters are much more fired up about the race than those of his Republican opponent John McCain.

The poll by the Associated Press and Yahoo News showed that 38 percent of Obama's supporters say the election is exciting compared with 9 percent of McCain's. The passion and interest shown by blocs of voters are important because they affect who will be motivated to vote.

Obama faces hurdles of his own. The poll shows lagging fervor for him by supporters of his vanquished rival in the party primaries, Hillary Clinton. And there are lots of dispirited and undecided independents, who are expected to be pivotal in the November election.

Obama and Clinton fought for the Democratic presidential nomination in a long and often bitter primary battle, in which Clinton frequently questioned whether Obama, a first-term senator, had the national security experience to serve as president.

Obama's trip is aimed at burnishing his foreign policy credentials, especially amid criticism from McCain, a longtime senator and war hero, that he is inexperienced.

Obama's campaign officials have announced stops in Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England. Obama has also pledged to travel to Iraq and Afghanistan this summer, but aides have not said whether those war zones will be part of the same trip.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman confirmed yesterday that she will welcome Obama to her office in Berlin next Thursday.

Yesterday, McCain was campaigning in the Midwestern swing state of Michigan, where he planned to visit a General Motors site developing an electric car.

After a briefing from GM CEO Rick Wagoner and other company officials, McCain was to speak at a town-hall event with auto workers at the GM Technology Center. McCain has been seeking to bolster his appeal to voters on economic issues.

Obama did not have any public events planned yesterday.

In the AP-Yahoo News poll, 65 percent of Obama's backers say they are hopeful about the campaign, double McCain's, and the Democrat's supporters are three times likelier to express pride.