Got Your Back

One dynamic has become apparent as Barack Obama embarked this weekend on his overseas tour to Iraq and Afghanistan, Jordan, Israel, Berlin, Paris and London: the White House's fingerprints appear to be all over the GOP's defense, an effort to bolster John McCain's efforts to counter Obama's message.

As Obama works to boost his foreign policy credentials and capture the visuals vital to selling him as a capable commander in chief, key Bush administration allies -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- have at turns contributed to the GOP's pushback.

Merkel voiced skepticism earlier this month about the appropriateness of the Bradenburg Gate for a planned Obama speech. President Reagan used the site as a backdrop in 1987 when he urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." Of course, President Kennedy in 1963 also gave his historic "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech at the gate. When news of Obama's speech first broke, Thomas Steg, a Merkel spokesman, said: “No German candidate for high office would think to use the National Mall or Red Square in Moscow for a rally, because it would be seen as inappropriate.” (Obama's campaign has since relocated the planned event to a site near the gate.)

Mullen, meanwhile, appearing yesterday on FOX cautioned against Obama's plan to bring all U.S. troops in Iraq home by 2010. "I think the consequences could be very dangerous," Mullen, the nation's top military officer, said on "Fox News Sunday." "I'm convinced at this point in time that ... making reductions based on conditions on the ground are very important."

Note also that The Washington Post reported yesterday that officials with the U.S. embassy in Iraq contacted Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asking that he revise remarks that appeared supportive of Obama's call to draw down troops. In response, Maliki's team issued word that his comment to a German publication had been misinterpreted. But he didn't walk it back, and a spokesman for the prime minister said today that they can't provide a timetable for withdrawal but that 2010 is "appropriate."

Readers: Doesn't this peripheral WH assistance reinforce the relationship between McCain and the administration even as the GOP nom works to fight relentless Dem assertions that he'd provide Americans with a third Bush term?

(JENNIFER SKALKA)