Anchoring Obama's Trip

Barack Obama's upcoming swing through Europe and the Middle East is now guaranteed to be a major media event, certified by the presence of the three network anchors.

The Washington Post has learned that Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric will travel overseas next week, lured by the prospect of interviews with the presumed Democratic candidate. That means the NBC, ABC and CBS newscasts will originate from stops on the trip and undoubtedly play it up.

Sources in both television and politics confirmed that the Williams, Gibson and Couric interviews will be parceled out on successive nights in different countries. That means the Obama camp will have drawn the anchors halfway around the world by offering access. (Correspondents could have done the interviews instead, but a certain competitiveness sets in once one or two anchors agree to go.) The Post is withholding the scheduled locations for the interviews for security reasons.

Obama has been quite adept at working the media. He is on the cover of this week's Newsweek, again, after star turns on Us Weekly, "Access Hollywood" (with kids) and, not so happily, the New Yorker. And the contrast with the coverage of John McCain's campaign has been striking.

When McCain, in March, visited Britain, France and Israel and met with their leaders, no network anchors tagged along. NBC and ABC sent correspondents; CBS did not. McCain's trip to Colombia and Mexico two weeks ago was barely covered, although NBC and ABC sent correspondents.

The Obama trip was already likely to dominate the news. (We're starting to see headlines like this one in the L.A. Times: "Europe Awaits Obama with Open Arms.") With Brian, Charlie and Katie along, it's a slam dunk.

On to the war debate: Iraq and Afghanistan may have faded from the media radar screen, but with Americans still fighting and dying in both places, both are going to factor into what is ultimately a commander-in-chief decision.

Obama has had quite the rollout on Iraq this week. A NYT op-ed Monday, a speech and sitdowns with Larry King and Gwen Ifill yesterday. There was a time, say a year ago, when Iraq was considered a slam-dunk for the Democratic nominee. One surge later, that has changed. Yesterday's WP poll found that on Iraq policy, "Americans continue to side with Obama and McCain, his Republican rival, in roughly equal numbers, with 47 percent of those polled saying they trust McCain more to handle the war, and 45 percent having more faith in Obama." (It doesn't surprise me that McCain holds a 72-48 edge on who would be a good commander-in-chief: He's a war hero, and Obama is a newcomer with no military experience.)

My sense is that a majority of the public still wants out of Iraq, but faced with the reality of a post-Bush pullout, is nervous about how that would be accomplished and whether the country would become a terrorist haven. It's front and center in the campaign right now, and should be.

The Daily News notes that "Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop 'surge' in Iraq."

After yesterday's dueling speeches, the media focus to some extent is on McCain.

"Unveiling a new strategy on Afghanistan," says USA Today, "John McCain called for sending thousands more troops there as he clashed with Barack Obama about their divergent foreign policy visions . . .