Obama/politics/Europe

Barack Obama's planned international tour has raised questions about whether or not one should electioneer overseas.

What's with all these cocky American politicians traveling abroad? Taking them down a peg seems to be a sport with a fan base both bipartisan and transnational. When George Bush went to the Israeli Knesset two months ago and denounced those who would negotiate with "terrorists and radicals" -- widely interpreted as a dig at Barack Obama -- Rahm Emanuel whipped into action and accused Bush of violating the tradition "that when a U.S. president is overseas, partisan politics stops at the water's edge." And remember when Nancy Pelosi went to Syria last year? Talk radio went crazy about her choice of headgear, and an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal made the wacky suggestion (taken up by a few wacky congressmen) that she be prosecuted under the dusty and irrelevant Logan Act.