McCain on World Stage On Mideast, Europe Trip

Strategists for Sen. John McCain, here speaking in Springfield, Pa., say his meetings with Middle Eastern and European leaders will show voters his foreign policy experience. (By William Thomas Cain -- Getty Images)

McCain's support for the surge was a mixed blessing during his presidential campaign. In early 2007, the continued violence in Iraq made his support for the policy seem naive. During his last visit to the country nearly a year ago, McCain was mocked for declaring an Iraqi marketplace safe while touring it under heavy military guard.

More recently, though, the apparent military success of the buildup has boosted his candidacy. His decision to launch a "no surrender" tour last summer made him look prescient, and he often pummels Obama and Clinton for their opposition to a strategy that now appears to be making Iraq safer.

"We cannot do as Senator Obama and Senator Clinton want to do: set a date for withdrawal," McCain said at a town-hall meeting last Wednesday in Exeter, N.H.

In the Democratic race, Obama and Clinton have each touted their ability to command the world's largest superpower in a time of crisis. Clinton's television ad, which featured a phone ringing in the White House at 3 a.m., put this issue in stark relief.

McCain advisers said the trip abroad should help to convince people that he ought to be the one answering the phone.

"He's ready to be president, not just at 3 a.m., but at any a.m. or p.m., 24 hours a day," Lieberman told the Exeter crowd.

In Jerusalem, McCain is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former prime ministers Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. In London, he will sit down with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. And in Paris, he will meet newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy.

At Wednesday's town-hall meeting, he once again referred to Sarkozy as the pro-American leader of France, "proving that, if you live long enough, anything is possible." A former prisoner of war in Vietnam and a decorated war hero, McCain has spent much of his Senate career focused on military and foreign policy as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.

To his foreign hosts this week, McCain is at once a known quantity and a bit of a mystery.

"He has had a lot of interaction with foreign leaders," said John R. Bolton, the former ambassador to the United Nations under Bush. "They know he's a serious person. They know he knows his stuff. This trip is an opportunity for him more to recharge some old connections."

But newspaper articles in Paris, London and Jerusalem raise questions about which McCain would become president: the moderate one who supports free trade and efforts to fight global warming; or the more conservative one, who vows never to let Iran acquire nuclear weapons.

The long Republican primary battle did little to clear up the question. During debates, he often appeared to be the voice of caution -- pledging to shut down the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has become a symbol of American bullying in much of the world. Other times, he appeared to relish the use of force, as when he sang "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys song, "Barbara Ann."

"I fear that if McCain wins, policy, in particular on Iraq or Iran, won't change considerably," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on the BBC Feb. 6. "On the other side, it will change."