At the time, it probably seemed like a good way to score political points. Back in May, John McCain began regularly taunting Barack Obama for not having visited Iraq in two years. Though McCain's own photo-op Iraq trips had provided controversy of their own, the Arizona Senator sensed an opening to portray Obama as out-of-touch with the situation on the ground:

"Look at what happened in the last two years since Senator Obama visited and declared the war lost," the GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting told the Associated Press in an interview, noting that the Illinois senator's last trip to Iraq came before the military buildup that is credited with curbing violence.

"He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time,"

A couple of weeks later, after McCain had continued to push this line of attack, Obama announced he'd visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the November election. McCain seemed to have forced Obama's hand on the matter of visiting Iraq, though Obama was quick to portray the decision otherwise, and reiterated his stance on his long-term priorities by relaying a conversation with Iraq's Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, in which he stated:

"I emphasized to him how encouraged I was by the reductions in violence in Iraq, but also insisted that it is important for us to begin the process of withdrawing U.S. troops, making clear that we have no interest in permanent bases in Iraq," Obama said.

"I gave [Zebari] 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 the points the McCain might have scored by the sight of Obama making an isolated trip to Iraq, in effect responding to a McCain's dare, have been all but erased in the past few weeks.

Just back from three weeks in what Donald Rumsfeld famously termed "Old Europe." And all over Holland, France and Germany, I heard the same question: Who is going to win the American election? Most of the people I talked to knew the general outline of race, but not the specifics. The day to day boxing match to determine who is more patriotic, Barack Obama or John McCain, is lost on them.

Of greater importance is an end to all things George W. Bush. There's a great sense that people are anxiously waiting for the present U.S. administration to be relegated to memory. In the same way that German citizens now wave their flags and sing "Super Deutschland!" at soccer matches-- oblivious or willfully ignoring what doing so 70 years ago meant--much of Europe is hungry to turn the page on the past eight years.

You see a lot of interest in Obama in Europe. A few campaign signs dot the windows of the bars in Amsterdam's Jordaan district. T-shirts with his likeness worn on the streets of Paris. German light rail trains featuring his image and quick commuter newsflashes. But not once did I spy McCain's likable mug.

President Bush is presently en route for Europe, where he will likely conclude his final visit to the continent before the expiration of his term. Pres. Bush will commence his trip with the EU-US Summit in Slovenia before dropping in on the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany, as well as paying visits to the Queen and the Pope.

The Summit will likely prove the only opportunity for substantive policy discussions. The agenda will include pressuring Iran on its nuclear weapons program, aid and troop increases for Afghanistan and US-EU trade barriers. Russia's backslide on democratic reforms will also likely garner some conversation.

Notably, the world leaders to receive the American president are of a far more charitable mold than those who hosted him during his previous visit. France boasts the pro-American Sarkozy, who has promised an increase in troop support for Afghanistan, while Italy's ever-vibrant Berlusconi will wine and dine the president following his visit with Germany chancellor Angela Merkel. Add to that a special reception by the Pope at St. John's Tower inside the Vatican gardens and tea with the Queen at Windsor Castle. At least for a few days in foreign lands, the president will prove the old adage: It's good to be the king!

The president's schedule:

Today President Bush will attend the EU-US Summit in Ljubljana

Tomorrow Arrives in Germany to meet the Chancellor Angela Merkel

Thursday Meets President Napolitano of Italy and the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi

Friday Audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican

Sunday Plans to call into Windsor Castle to meet the Queen; dinner with Gordon Brown at No 10

Monday, June 16 Mr Bush is expected to visit Peter Robinson, the new First Minister of Northern Ireland, in Belfast

Former President Jimmy Carter had a lot to say at the 2008 Hay Festival in Wales this past weekend. The event, which President Bill Clinton once referred to as "the Woodstock of the mind," (the Clintons just keep getting tangled up with Woodstock don't they?) is an annual literature festival sponsored by U.K. paper, The Guardian.

In a discussion of the blockade of Hamas-led Gaza, President Carter made a series of statements that are surprisingly vicious, even for him. He referred to the blockade as "one of the greatest human rights crimes on Earth," and suggested that it was "embarrassing" to see Europeans going along with this. It isn't enough to suggest that Israel and the U.S. are engaged in a war crime or human rights tragedy. No, he goes further and presumes human rights crimes are par for the course for us. It is the Europeans who should be embarrassed for going along with, you see. They are the enlightened ones, after all.

"Let the Europeans lift the embargo and say we will protect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza," he said. Again, the clear implication is Americans won't protect human rights as a matter of course, an opinion in keeping with his later expression of "horror" over America's "torturing" of prisoners.

Carter also suggested that there is a need to "marshal help from other nations in rebuilding the destruction that we [Americans] have perpetrated on Iraq unnecessarily."

During my years in Europe, the most disappointing sentiment which I have encountered has been the refusal of Europeans to believe that Americans take any actions for altruistic reasons.

Of course, the U.S. often acts in its own best-interest. From foreign trade agreements to the Global War on Terror, Americans are not unaware of the benefits of wealth and security we hope to receive. However, Americans are neither shocked by, nor adverse to, appeals to sacrifice our wealth and security for the good of others.

The State Department, particularly through USAID, provides billions of dollars in aid to developing countries around the world. Further, nearly every conflict in history to which the U.S. military has responded has been for the liberation of foreign people around the world. This week, President Bush was in Bucharest, Romania for a NATO Summit at which allied countries embraced a U.S. missile shield for Europe. The costly U.S. missile defense system will be installed in Poland and the Czech Republic, so as to offer protection to both Western and Eastern European nations.

It is a testament to the benevolence of U.S. foreign policy that we are sometimes criticized for tying aid to national strategic advantage. We do not use our power to enslave and abuse the world - we are only subject to periodic claims that our selfless sacrifices are sometimes not sufficiently selfless for our perennial critics.

While Hillary and Barack are slugging it out on the ground, McCain is taking the opportunity to head to Europe. And guess who he's going with?

Joined by two close Senate colleagues, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, McCain will visit Jerusalem on March 18, London the next two days, and Paris on March 21, according to a statement.

An Israeli official said Sunday that the senior US lawmakers would meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.

A month ago, with the Republican race going on longer than expected, McCain canceled a planned meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London and an address at a German security conference.