Why is it, exactly, that John McCain spent the week of the 4th of July traveling to Latin America? No one seems to be able to explain it, but the Washington Post’s Dan Balz takes a closer look:
Is his commitment to free trade so deep that he needed not one foreign trip (to Canada last month) but two foreign trips to make that clear to people? Is the issue of free trade so central to the outcome of the election that he intends to make it the centerpiece of his campaign strategy?
The answers — no and no — are evident just from posing the questions. Even McCain seems defensive about his short foray into Latin America — his itinerary includes a stop in Mexico before returning to the United States for the holiday weekend — as was evident by his appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday.
Before host Robin Roberts could even pose a question, McCain was explaining why he was there and what he was dong [sic] and that he would be home soon. He said he would be in Colombia only one day, in Mexico only one day and that the issues of free trade and drug trafficking were important enough to warrant his visit.
As a rule, foreign travel in the midst of a presidential campaign is about sending voters a message about the candidate’s agenda and/or priorities. But in this case, McCain made brief, largely substance-less, trips to Colombia and Mexico, which didn’t seem to tie into any kind of campaign message at all.
Kevin reminds us that McCain’s campaign is connected to Colombia, by virtue of his top strategist having been a lobbyist for Colombia’s leading gas and oil company, but it’s unclear if that had any bearing on McCain’s trip.
The Boston Globe reported today, “McCain — who in March traveled to Iraq, Israel, Jordan, France, and the United Kingdom, and two weeks ago made a day trip to Ottawa — has tried to find an issue in the fact that his opponent has been a relative homebody of late.”
I suppose, but is that really a winning message? “Don’t vote for Obama; he’s spent too much time stateside”?
On a related note, there was a terrific rescue mission in Colombia yesterday, which coincidentally came at the same time as McCain’s trip. As you’ve probably heard, Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, including three U.S. military contractors, were freed thanks to Colombian officials and military intelligence agents who had infiltrated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Fox News, in an apparent attempt to make itself appear even more ridiculous than usual, told viewers that McCain’s visit to Colombia may have been related to freeing the hostages.
…Colombia’s Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said that his country’s government had rescued 15 hostages — including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors — from FARC rebels.
Santos made his announcement shortly after Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) left the country, where he was visiting as part of a three-day trip to Colombia and Mexico. As soon as the good news broke, Fox News was already spinning it as a victory for McCain and speculating that it came about as a result of the senator’s short visit to the country.
The claim is so absurd, even the McCain campaign wouldn’t make it. In this reality, today’s rescue was the result of years of work by Colombian officials and military intelligence agents who had infiltrated the guerrilla ranks.
Sometimes, good news is just good news. Does Fox News really need to turn every news item into an excuse to deceive the public and help Republican campaign efforts? Don’t answer that; it’s a rhetorical question.