Barack Obama touched down at Chicago’s Midway Airport last night at 8:20pm, Central time, 10 days and 9 nations after he departed his hometown for the Middle East. Before the candidate deplaned after the 8-hour flight from London, he popped into the staff section of his plane, which was filled with advisors and senior staffers. Press couldn’t hear what Obama said to them, but in response, the team cheered and applauded.

The candidate was greeted by his wife and two daughters at the airport and told waiting to reporters that it was ‘good to be back.” Today he joked, “Usually, I have to beg just to make sure that [the kids are] not asleep when I get home.  But they surprised me at the airport, which was wonderful.”

Just hours after landing, Obama was back at it this morning, speaking at a UNITY, a Journalists of Color conference in Chicago. A still weary candidate told the audience he would go home and take a nap following his appearance, but according to his protective press pool, Obama worked out and got a haircut.

While images of a presidential-looking Barack Obama have dominated the airwaves and the front pages of newspapers here at home for the past 9 days, Republicans have criticized Obama’s trip, calling it presumptuous, and as a moderator said today, “audacious.”

Obama pointed out McCain has traveled abroad to meet with world leaders as well, yet nobody characterized his trips that way. “I think people assumed that what he was doing was … talk to world leaders who we may have deal with should we become president.  That’s part of the job that I’m applying for,” he said. “Now, I admit we did it really well. But that shouldn’t be a strike against me,” Obama said to laughter.  “You know, if I was bumbling and fumbling through this thing, I would have been criticized for that.”

Indeed the Republicans did watch Obama’s every move and pounced when they could. When the Democrat cancelled a visit to Landstuhl medical center in Germany, the McCain campaign responded with an ad claiming while Obama had time to work out in Germany at the Ritz Carlton, he did not have time to visit with wounded troops as he was in an early schedule.

The Obama campaign noted the video used in the GOP ad showed Obama shooting hoops with soldiers. “John McCain never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” a senior advisor said while waiting to go through customs late last night in Chicago, reminding reporters Obama stopped by Walter Reed weeks ago without any press.

Yesterday in London, Obama explained why he chose not to visit the troops. “The last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns. So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been seen as a political controvesy of some sort what we decided was that we would not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops who were there,” he told reporters standing in front of 10 Downing Street.

Despite the Landstuhl controversy, the one term senator looked sure and confident standing next to the world leaders with whom he met, and overall it appears as though the trip helped Obama as polls show a modest bump.  “In terms of me governing, being an effective president, that trip was helpful, because I think I’ve established relationships and a certain bond of trust with key leaders around the world who have taken measure of my positions and how I operate and I think can come away with some confidence that this is somebody I can deal with,” he observed.

But he acknowledged, “A week of me focusing on international issues doesn’t necessarily translate into higher poll numbers here in the United States, because people are understandably concerned about the immediate effects of the economy.  And that’s what we will be talking about for the duration.”

The candidate will have a full day of campaign events next week, but is expected to take a break next month. When the British Conservative Party leader told Obama he needed a break, Obama agreed, “You’ve got to refresh yourself…I am going to take a week in August.”

The Obama campaign held a conference today call to discuss the senator’s upcoming trip to the Middle East and Europe. According to the foreign press, Obama will arrive in Jordan early next week, but until now the campaign has refused to discuss any details of the trip on the record.

Several of Obama’s top foreign policy advisors were on today’s call to talk about the purpose of the trip and with whom the Illinois senator would meet on his trip to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France, and the UK. Included on that list: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Opposition Leader David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, King Abdullah of Jordan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Chimon Perez, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

But the campaign continues to refuse to discuss the dates and locations of any of the planned stops, presumably for safety concerns, and will not say where the meeting with the Palestinian Authority leaders will take place.

According to advisor Susan Rice, Obama will exchange views with these leaders on issues critical to national and global security in order to deepen relationships and explore concretely a way to discuss cooperation on these challenges.

Rice added that “it’s important to note that it is not our intent to make policy or to negotiate, we won’t do so. There’s one President of the United States at any given time and we will certainly honor and respect that.” But, she said, the candidate may “underscore” the message to leaders that “stepped up U.S. contribution should be met with a stepped up NATO contribution to the extent possible” in Afghanistan.

The campaign is not calling this a campaign event - even though the candidate will be joined by at least 19 media outlets along the way. “The trip is not at all a campaign trip, a rally of any sort. It’s …a series of substantive meetings with our friends and our allies to talk about the common challenges that we face and the national security dangers for the 21st century,” Robert Gibbs said on the call.

In fact the only speech-like event the campaign will discuss is the much talked about Berlin event, where the candidate will “underscore our shared values and our shared goals” to the German people.

The German press originally reported the Democrat would speak at Brandenburg Gate, which then was quickly made off limits by the German government. Today the Obama campaign would not confirm or deny the latest speculations on where the speech may take place, only that they were looking for a location that “meets our needs and our German hosts’ needs and interests.”

The campaign declined to say how long this trip has been in the making, but said Senator Obama reached out to Secretary Rice about his trip and that the two had “a very productive conversation.” The campaign has been relying on help from US embassies in each of the countries they are planning to visit.