Presidential campaign going abroad

By Steve Holland - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Time was when the idea of U.S. presidential candidates taking their campaigns abroad would have had their political operatives shaking their heads in amusement.

But Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are doing just that -- Obama going to Europe and the Middle East and McCain to Mexico and Colombia -- and their visits carry significant risks and rewards.

Some time before the Democratic nominating convention in late August, Obama will go to France, Germany, Britain, Jordan and Israel. Iraq and Afghanistan visits are also planned.

The first-term Illinois senator needs to convince Americans that he is not a foreign policy lightweight to inoculate himself against McCain's charge that he is naive and inexperienced.

McCain, on the other hand, has more tactical reasons for going to Latin America this week -- his popularity among Hispanics has been eroding and he urgently needs to shore it up.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States and account for about 9 percent of the national electorate. They could be a critical swing voting bloc in November battleground states like Florida and in the U.S. Southwest.

"Clearly he understands that he must do better than he's doing so far with the Hispanic and Latino vote," said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia.

McCain will also use a visit to Colombia to try to score political points against Obama on free trade. McCain wants a free trade accord with Colombia that Obama opposes.

TELEVISION IMAGES

The Obama campaign hopes television images of its candidate overseas will help convince Americans, who vote on November 4, that they can trust him with the presidency.

He is in a position similar to that of Democrat Jimmy Carter, a little-known Georgia governor and peanut farmer who rose from obscurity to win the White House in 1976 over Republican incumbent Gerald Ford.

Carter had no foreign policy experience at the time, and he prepared for his successful 1976 race by meeting then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1973 and visiting Japan in 1974 -- gaining some much-needed foreign policy credibility.

Obama, leading McCain in the polls on a message of change from eight years of George W. Bush's presidency, must avoid making any missteps abroad that could draw attention to his inexperience.

"With any trip like this for somebody running for president, there's always the risk of a gaffe. And that would reinforce the current uncertainty that a lot of people who are just learning about Barack Obama still have," said Democratic strategist Bud Jackson.

On the other hand, Jackson said, "there's more reward for him by being successful on his trip. He can start to establish himself on an international stage and then that will help people answer in their own mind whether or not he is up for the job of being commander-in-chief."