Obama's Trip Schedule Detailed

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama left Iraq and touched down in Amman, Jordan, today, emerging from an Osprey helicopter, carrying a helmet and body armor, and began the second phase of his international trip. He and his traveling companions, Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed, were expected to offer an assessment of their trip to Iraq and Afghanistan at a news conference at the historic Citadel overlooking this city. It will be followed by a one-on-one session between Obama and Jordan's King Abdullah II, who interrupted a U.S. visit to fly back through the night for the meeting.

Obama's trip to Iraq and Afghanistan was official government business, as part of a congressional delegation; from here on out, it is being orchestrated by his campaign. As such, it raises some delicate issues as he seeks to extract maximum electoral advantage — putting Obama in settings that aim to present Americans with the image of someone ready and capable to become the Commander in Chief of a superpower — without seeming presumptuous. It will be a week in which Obama tries to strike a delicate balance between statesmanship and politics.

The campaign offered its first detailed look at Obama's schedule for the remainder of the weeklong international trip. After dinner Tuesday night with Abdullah, Queen Rania, Hagel, Reed and a number of other Jordanian officials, Obama will fly aboard his campaign charter to Jerusalem, where he is scheduled to meet Wednesday morning with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Likud Party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Memorial, then meet with President Shimon Peres. From there, he departs for Ramallah in the West Bank, where meetings are scheduled with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the President's office. Dinner Wednesday night will be with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem.

Obama will depart Jerusalem before dawn on Thursday to fly to Berlin, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Federal Chancellery and with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Foreign Ministry. Berlin is also where the only major public event of the trip is scheduled: a speech before what are expected to be tens of thousands at the Victory Tower in the Tiergarten. Campaign officials have been sensitive about the characterization of that event, insisting that it is a substantive foreign policy address, though given German enthusiasm for Obama, the atmosphere is expected to look more like a political rally. They said Obama is not likely to mention his opponent, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, but they would not say whether he will criticize the policies of George W. Bush.

On Friday, Obama will touch down briefly in Paris for a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and then fly to London for a series of meetings on Saturday, the first of which will be with former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Obama has scheduled subsequent sessions with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron before returning to Chicago.