Obama’s Transatlantic Travels: Beatles-esque?

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  07.18.08 | 1:07 PM ET

Just how big a deal is Barack Obama’s 12,000-mile overseas trip, expected to begin in the coming days? Foreign Policy’s Passport blog points out this line from the Times of London: “You have to go back to the Beatles’ first U.S. tour to find a transatlantic trip freighted with the sort of pregnant excitement that attends the one Barack Obama is about to make.” Wow. Meanwhile, John McCain has made three foreign trips in recent months, which U.S. media, it seems, have covered with the all excitement of a Turtles world tour. To illustrate, here’s an audio/video musical comparison of the interest in the two candidates’ travels:

Obama:


McCain: