The Trail

ON BEING TESTED BY THE WORLD

Obama: Next President Faces 'Host of Challenges'

RICHMOND -- Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday there is no reason to think that he is more likely to be tested by an international crisis if elected than is rival John McCain, and said the more important question is how the next president would respond.

"Whoever is the next president is going to have to deal with a whole host of challenges internationally -- and a period of transition in a new administration is always one in which we have to be vigilant," Obama said after meeting here with his team of national security and foreign policy advisers.

The Democratic presidential nominee was responding to a question about an assertion made by his running mate, Joe Biden, over the weekend. "Mark my words," Biden had said. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking."

McCain's campaign has used the statement to imply that Obama is not ready to lead in a dangerous world.

While Biden's words appeared to suggest that Obama would be singled out for the test, Obama brushed the comment off, saying, "I think Joe sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes."

"We are going to face a number of threats and tests and challenges, because for the last eight years we've had a policy, a bad set of policies, that have resulted in two unresolved wars, bin Laden and al-Qaeda communicating regularly and training folks to potentially attack America, and an economy that has been in a free fall," Obama said.

"The question is, will the next president meet that test by moving America in a new direction -- by sending a clear signal to the rest of the world that we are no longer about bluster and unilateralism and ideology, but we're about creating partnerships around the world to solve practical problems.

"That's going to be the best way to meet that test."

McCain-Palin spokesman Tucker Bounds used Obama's comments as another opportunity to pound the Democratic ticket.

"Judgment to lead? It's not leadership for Barack Obama to promise to be straight with Americans, only to dismiss serious statements and concern from his own running mate as simple 'rhetorical flourishes,' " Bounds said in a statement. "Joe Biden guaranteed a generated international crisis if Barack Obama is elected, and a smile-for-the-cameras press conference isn't going to mitigate the risk of an Obama presidency."