GRAND HAVEN, MI — While his campaign opened up a new front on Sen. Barack Obama today in calling his planned trip abroad an international “campaign rally,” it seemed initially today that Sen. McCain was contradicting his own message.

During an interview with Fox News Channel today, McCain Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker attacked Obama’s upcoming trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and a number of European nations.

“Let’s drop the pretense that this is a fact-finding trip and call it what it is–the first of its kind campaign rally overseas,” she said in a clip the campaign put up on You Tube and sent out to reporters (above). During a later appearance on MSNBC she also called the trip “one giant photo opportunity…not designed to inform his world view.”

But when he was asked about the comments aboard his bus this afternoon, McCain appeared to disagree with Hazelbaker’s statement.

“I’m glad that he is (traveling overseas) and pleased that he is going to Iraq for only the second time and going to Afghanistan for the first time,” McCain said. “I can only give you my opinion, and I will talk to (Hazelbaker). But the fact is, I’m glad that he’s going to Iraq and I think it’s - I’m glad that he’s going to Afghanistan. It’s long, long overdue, if you want to lead this nation and secure our national security.”

The dissonant message led the campaign to organize an impromptu outdoor press conference this afternoon so McCain could clear it up once in for all. His message: the Iraqi and Afghanistan legs of Obama’s trip seem legitimate while the European portion appears to be a photo opportunity.

“As we all know Senator Obama is about to go on a trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and I understand other countries. The focus of our conversation today on the bus was about Iraq and Afghanistan and what Senator Obama does in the other countries, whether political rallies or not, obviously would then give them a political flavor to say the least,” McCain told reporters after a quick campaign stop at Pronto Pup, a local corn dog joint in Western Michigan.

“If he has political rallies in other places, then obviously it’s a political trip….apparently it’s gonna be (a photo opportunity) if he is going to have rally in Germany at the Brandenburg Gate, which is what is being publicly stated. Of course if you have political rallies then its a political event,” he added.

PITTSBURGH, PA — Sen. McCain, joined by his wife Cindy, made a previously unannounced visit to the Primanti Brothers Restaurant and Bar, a famous Pittsburgh-area sandwich shop, Tuesday evening for a retail stop-turned media availability.

After briefly greeting a couple dozen patrons, including an Arizona family, McCain took questions from the gathered local and national press as he and Cindy were seated on stools at the counter, waiting for their cheesesteak sandwiches.

Asked for his reaction to recent Maliki calls for troop withdrawals from Iraq, McCain said he is confident that the Iraqi Prime Minister will allow the U.S. to withdraw forces in direct relation to the reality on the ground.

“I am confident that he will act, as the (Iraqi) President and foreign minister have both told me in the last several days, that it will be directly related to the situation on the ground–just as they have always said,” McCain said. “And since we are succeeding, than I am convinced, as I have said before, we can withdraw and withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable. And I’m confident that is what Prime Minister Maliki is talking about since he has told me that for the many meetings we have had…he doesn’t want to give up these hard won victories in Basra, in Mosul, in Sadr city.”

Additionally, the candidate who received much grief last year for singing “bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ ‘Barbara Ann’ at a campaign event, made another joke regarding Iran that could also potentially be seen as offensive.

Informed of a report that U.S. exports to Iran have “increased ten-fold” during the Bush administration, with the biggest export being cigarettes, McCain interrupted the reporter before he could finish:

“Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” he said, before quickly adding, “I meant that as a joke–as a person who hasn’t had a cigarette in…29 years.”

When a local reporter queried the presumptive GOP nominee about his chances in Pennsylvania, where he currently down by nearly double digits in the polls, McCain said he is confident about his chances as he got in a “bitter” dig at Obama.

“We are going to be spending a lot of time here. We are going to be getting on the bus and we are going to go to the small towns in the state of Pennsylvania. And we’re going to tell them that we don’t agree with Senator Obama when he said that they cling to guns and to religion because they are bitter about the economy,” McCain added. “We are going to tell them that we love them and we appreciate them and that they’re the heartland of America and they believe in these things because that’s the abiding faith that they have in America, in their families and their future.”

The 24-hour eatery, which includes a wall-full of caricatures of famous Pittsburghers and Pittsburgh athletes from Andy Warhol to Terry Bradshaw to Dennis Miller, is widely known for adding french fries, cole slaw and mayo to the sandwich of your choice

At a town hall meeting in Powder Springs, Georgia, outside Atlanta, Barack Obama discussed bankruptcy before taking questions from the audience. One man, a self described reformed Republican talked about Obama’s “interesting week” last week, when the Illinois Senator was accused of flip-flopping on Iraq.

Last week in Fargo, ND, Obama made room to “refine” his Iraq policy, causing the McCain campaign to send out a snarky statement congratulating the Democrat for embracing John McCain’s views on the war in Iraq. Obama, of course, maintained his plan for troop withdrawal has been consistent all along - he would remove one to two combat brigades a month, at which rate all would be out of the country in 16 months. He said he always qualified that the timetable would be contingent on the situation on the ground in Iraq.

“In particular Senator McCain and his cronies are now coming after you on Iraq, and I was wondering if you could make very clear again what the position is,” the man said at the Georgia town hall.

Obama rejected the “broader issue” that he’s shifting to the center or flip-flopping. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me,” he began. He identified himself as “squarely in the Democratic camp” for his views on a making the tax code fairer, creating universal health care, and making college more affordable.

But, he said, “I’m not somebody who is just talking about government as a solution for everything. I also believe in personal responsibility, I also believe in faith.” Obama then talked about his faith-based initiative, which he spoke about last week in Ohio. “That’s not something new, I’ve been talking about that for years now. I’ve been, I’ve been organizing with churches for years in the community. And so the notion that somehow that’s me tying to look like I’m more centered - more centrist - is just not true,” he said.

Obama said he agreed “for years” with a recent Supreme Court ruling that said the Second Amendment gives people the individual right to bear arms. “That doesn’t mean that I also recognized that we need to make sure that we’ve decent controls over the use of firearms in our community. Those two potions are not contradictory,” he explained.

So what’s all the confusion about? According to Barack Obama, “One of the things you find as you go though this campaign, is everyone has become so cynical about politics. That the assumption is you must be doing everything for political reasons. And the message I want to send everybody is: you’re not going to agree with me on 100% of what I think but don’t assume that if I don’t agree with you on something that it must be because I’m doing that politically. I may just disagree with you. But we can agree on 90% of the things that are important and on those 10% we will agree to disagree.”

On Iraq, Obama repeated language he’s used during the course of his 17-month long campaign:

“I have also consistently said that once were in that we had to be as careful getting out as we were  careless getting in. Because once you get in now you’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe. You’ve got to make sure that the country doesn’t collapse. And so what I’ve called for is a phased withdraw, a phased redeployment. That is not precipitous, that is responsibly getting out combat troops out at a pace of about 1-2 brigades per month. And at that point we would have our troops out, our combat troops out in about 16 months.  Now assuming that I take office in January, then that means that we would have our – we would still have our troops there for about 2 more years from now…So when I hear John McCain saying ‘we can’t surrender’ ‘we can’t wave the white flag’ nobody’s talking about surrendering. We’re talking about common sense. We can not be there forever. We can’t be there for 50 years. We can’t afford it.  Our military families can’t bear that burden. We’ve got to get more troops into Afghanistan. I am going to bring this war to an end. So don’t be confused. I will bring the Iraq war to a close when I am president of the US of America.”

DENVER — Less than one week after the official Steve Schmidt take over of day-to-day operations, pure message discipline today–economy, economy, economy–from Camp McCain.

(Left: Note new “Jobs for America” signage at his event.)

In addition to his speech addressing his jobs plan, the campaign did the following things Monday to hammer home their message:

–announced that 300 economists endorsed his economic plan.

–held two national conference calls for reporters pushing the jobs message.

–rolled out a national “jobs coalition” of small business owners in 19 states.

–released of a comprehensive briefing paper on their plan to balance the budget in four years.

–released early McCain speech excerpts to reporters.

–did not hold a press conference where other issues were sure to come up.

Also noteworthy was the campaign’s restraint regarding the Obama Iraq withdrawal remarks today. While McCain has not yet addressed the comments himself–and we know he must be itching to talk about it–he maintained the message. Even when tossed a softball today by one town hall participant who asked the presumptive GOP nominee what the biggest difference was between him and Obama–McCain showed a good amount of restraint, keeping his criticism related to the economy.

“We’re gonna try this again. Apparently I wasn’t clear enough this morning on my position with respect to the war in Iraq,” Senator Obama began his second media avail of the day. Obviously annoyed with reports that he’d hedged his position on troop withdrawals from Iraq after he told reporters that he would “continue to refine” his policies after his upcoming visit to Iraq, the campaign held a second avail to attempt to clarify his views on the matter.

“I guess I’m just puzzled,” he told reporters at the second media avail. “I think what’s happened is that the McCain campaign primed the pump with the press to suggest that somehow we were changing our policy when we hadn’t and that just hasn’t been the case. I’ve given no indication of a change in policy. I haven’t suggested that we’re moving in a different direction.”

The candidate and the campaign maintain the senator has been clear all along: he will end the war, but do so carefully. The point of contention – in the primary phase of the election, Barack Obama spoke often of a 16-month timetable for withdrawing all combat troops from Iraq, but in the general election, the candidate has not used that language for some time now. Obama explained that was merely the result of a poor economy taking center stage, but there have been rumblings in political circles he was softening his stance on troop withdrawal, especially when he inserted nuanced language that this is what he “intends” to do as President.

Not so, says Obama. “I have said throughout this campaign that this war was ill conceived, that it was a strategic blunder, and that it needs to come to an end. I’ve also said that I will be deliberate and careful in how we got out, that I would bring our troops home in the pace of one to two brigades per month and that that pace we would have our combat troops out in 16 months. That position has not changed. I have not equivocated on that position. I am not searching for maneuvering room with respect to that position,” he explained, adding that he had not seen any information that contradicts that timetable.

Rather Obama insisted he never guaranteed all troops would be out of Iraq in 16 months, and the campaign sent along a list of quotes where he said similar language in the midst of the Democratic primary.  “I believe that we should have all our troops out by 2013, but I don’t want to make promises, not knowing what the situation’s going to be three or four years out,” then underdog Obama said in a September Democratic debate.

Today he continued to defend his unwillingness to promise a date of withdrawal as he will continue to weigh advice from those on the ground in Iraq. “I would always reserve the right to do what’s best in America’s national interest, and if it turned out, for example, that we had to in certain months slow the pace because of the safety of American troops in terms of getting combat troops out, of course we would take that into account. I would be a poor Commander-in-Chief if I didn’t take facts on the ground into account,” he said.

During the primary slog, Barack Obama ran as the antiwar candidate who would end the war by removing one or two brigades a month until all combat forces are out of Iraq in about 16 months - a calculation Obama touted to Democratic voters. He claimed that he was the candidate who could best end the war since he had been against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand he would point out, had shifted her stance on the war.

But now as Obama enters the general election phase where he must compete for a wider range of voters, he has been talking less about troop withdrawal - something he explained was because he’d been spending a lot of time talking about the economy.

Today the RNC sent out an email to political reporters suggesting Obama would soon reverse, or at least soften his position on troop withdrawal in Iraq. In the body of the email was a lone quote from a Liberal DC think tank analyst, who wrote an OP-ED in today’s Washington Times. “Three or four of his Iraq advisers are hinting of greater flexibility. … That indicates the potential for some change in his previous position or at least some flexibility,” the quote read.

Today at a press availability in Fargo, North Dakota, Obama dismissed the claims as “pure speculation,” and that he has been consistent all along. “I believe the war in Iraq was a mistake, that we need to bring this war to a responsible end. I have said repeatedly, although it was recently quoted as something new, that we need to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in and that view has not changed…I have always said that I will listen to commanders on the ground; I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability,” he said.

Noting his planned trip to Iraq this summer on a Congressional Delegation, Obama said, “When I go to Iraq and I have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies,” acknowledging that his views on Iraq are not static.

So is this a “reversal” for the anti-war Democrat to appeal to more conservative voters? The Obama camp says it is not, and pointed reporters to a list of quotes showing the candidate has used similar language throughout his candidacy - including a quote from a television interview immediately following his announcement last February.

“What happens [in Iraq] is dictated by conditions on the ground and what the commanders say,” he told 60 Minutes on February 11, 2007. And in a nationally televised debate last September, Obama cautioned, “I believe that we should have all our troops out by 2013, but I don’t want to make promises, not knowing what the situation’s going to be three or four years out.”

Read the entire list of quotes below the jump.

(more…)

The Obama campaign announced details of the Illinois Senator’s first trip abroad as a presidential candidate, saying he’ll be visiting France, Germany, Israel, Jordan and the United Kingdom to consult with leaders about common challenges like terrorism, nuclear proliferation and climate change.

“This trip will be an important opportunity for me to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American national security, and to consult with some of our closest friends and allies about the common challenges we face,” Obama said in a statement. “Israel is a strong and close friend of the United States, and is confronting grave threats from Gaza to Tehran. Jordan has been a close partner in the peace process and a host of other issues of common concern. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are key anchors of the transatlantic alliance and have contributed to the mission in Afghanistan, and I look forward to discussing how we can strengthen our partnership in the years to come.”

“This will be an important opportunity to have an exchange of views with leaders in these countries about these and other issues that are critical to American national security — and global security — in the 21st century,” he said.

Not on this list: Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries that — according to the McCain campaign, which keeps a running tally — Obama has not visited for more than 900 days. Obama is set to travel to the war zones on a separate trip as part of a congressional delegation, not as a candidate.

Just days after Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari met with Republican candidate for president, John McCain, he took a phone call from Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

The two spoke as the Senator drove from his home in Chicago to Midway Airport this morning. When the candidate landed in Flint, Michigan, for his speech on competitiveness, Obama shared with reporters details about his conversation.

Obama said during the conversation, “We discussed a broad range of issues I thought it was very constructive. He emphasized to me his belief that as a consequence of the extraordinary efforts and sacrifice of US military forces, we’ve made significant progress in quelling the violence in Iraq. And that the Iraqi government is deeply interested in negotiating an effective Status of Forces agreement and a strategic framework agreement with the United States.”

Of course Obama is the candidate in the race who will begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, and has campaigned on such a platform since he got into the race. He said he told Zebari that while he was encouraged by the reduction of violence in Iraq, he “insisted that it is important for us to begin the process of withdrawing US troops, making clear that we have no interest in permanent bases in Iraq, that any negotiations for a Status of Forces agreement or strategic framework agreement should be done in the open and with Congress’s authorization, because I believe that it’s in the interests of both Iraq and the United States that any such critical negotiations have strong bipartisan support and that they can be sustained through a future administration.”

He also stressed the need for the need for “political accommodations” and the importance of engaging nearby countries. Finally, he said, “I gave him an assurance that should we be elected, an Obama administration will make sure that we continue with the progress that’s been made in Iraq, that we won’t act precipitously, but that we will move to end US combat forces in Iraq in a manner that’s as careful as we were careless getting in.”

When the Senator was asked if the Foreign Minister expressed concern for withdrawal, Obama replied, “No - he did not express that. He did emphasized his belief that we’ve made real progress and I think was eager to see political accommodations between the factions follow up in the wake of this progress.”

And on the much ballyhooed visit to Iraq, Obama said, “I told him that I look forward to seeing him in Baghdad.” A reporter asked if the trip might be before the Democrats’ August convention. “You know, we’ll make an announcement about that, but as I said, I’m interested in visiting Iraq and Afghanistan before the election.”

The RNC, which has been tracking the days since Obama’s last visit to the country in 2006, welcomes such a trip. “In the nearly 900 days since Barack Obama visited Iraq, the facts on the ground have changed dramatically – but his ideologically-driven position has not. When Obama visits Iraq, he’ll see that he was wrong to oppose the surge, wrong to continue to ignore our commanders’ advice and wrong to demand premature withdrawal. America cannot afford a Commander-in-Chief who needs on-the-job training,” said spokesman Alex Conant in a statement.

Before a man attending Obama’s Wisconsin town hall today asked a question on health care, he had a request for Senator Obama.

“When you’re elected president and you’re busy at making all kinds of political appointments, I would like to request that George W. Bush be appointed US ambassador to Iraq,” the man asked. The crowd laughed loudly.

It’s not looking likely for soon-to-be-former President Bush. “Honestly, we somebody really good in that job. So….” Obama said with a half smile.

The RNC hosted a call today featuring Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as Barack Obama is set to his big victory rally tonight in St. Paul on the site of the GOP ‘08 Convention.

Pawlenty told reporters he thought McCain would siphon away Clinton’s supporter who are “underwhelmed by Senator Obama” from the Democratic Party.  The GOP Gov also ripped into Obama  for a lack of knowledge of Iraq and urged the Democrat to visit the war zone with the presumptive Republican nominee.

The Obama campaign responded today with a statement: “These partisan attacks won’t change the fact that Senator McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time last year. The McCain campaign has embraced George Bush’s policies, so it’s no surprise that they have also embraced George Bush’s divisive tactics. What’s clear is that the American people want change, which means responsibly ending the Iraq war, building an economy that rewards work and creates jobs, and passing a health care plan that guarantees insurance to every American who wants it and brings down premiums for every family who needs relief.”

Bring on the general election fight.