Obama not so popular at home

WASHINGTON/LONDON: Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama may be getting all the adulation during his week-long tour abroad but new opinion polls indicate he is giving away ground back home to rival John McCain.
      
The 47-year-old African American Senator, who has been rapped by the rival camp for taking a "premature victory lap", met with British Prime Gordon Brown in London today on the last leg of his overseas tour.
       
A Gallup poll found Obama leading McCain 47-41 percent, a four-point gain for the Republican from earlier in the week.
      
The average of the three most recent national surveys of registered voters shows Obama with 47 percent and McCain with 43 percent. About 10 percent say they are undecided.
 
A CNN poll of polls July 16, Obama and McCain were separated by 6 percentage points. It includes recent surveys from Gallup, NBC/The Wall Street Journal, and ABC/The Washington Post.
 
Obama today appeared defensive saying he knew that that his foreign campaign could hurt him in the polls back home but insisted the trip was important saying "many of the issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad."
      
"We've been out of the country for a week. People are worried about gas prices, They're worried about home foreclosures," he said after arriving at 10 Downing Street following his whirlwind tour to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Germany and France.
      
"The reason that I though this trip was important was I am convinced that many of the issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad," Obama said.
      
Over two lakh people had turned up to hear his speech in Berlin and  a poll conducted for the weekly Bild am Sonntag newspaper showed 63 per cent of Germans believed an Obama administration in the White House would be good for he country.
      
Obama today waved and smiled at the media at the 10 Downing Street before meeting Brown who decided not to greet the US senator on the doorstep because he did not grant the same honour to McCain when he visited in March.
     
Stressing on strong transatlantic relationship, he said co-operation with the UK was crucial over climate change, terrorism and the economy
 
After a two-hour meeting with Brown Obama also thanked the British people for their support in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
Earlier today, Obama met with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who now serves as the Middle East envoy for the "quartet" of the United States, European Union, Russia, and the United Nations.
 
While in Paris, Obama said Iran should not wait for the next US president to be elected before resolving its dispute with the West.
 
He said Tehran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its "illicit nuclear programme".
 
Obama's staff has asserted the tour is not intended as a campaign trip, though Obama's meetings with troops and world leaders have been designed to boost his foreign policy credentials and project him as future commander-in-chief ahead of the November contest with McCain, a 72-year-old Vietnam veteran.
       
In the only public event of his trip, Obama told the Berlin audience that the US cannot go it alone in Afghanistan and Iraq and called on Europe and America to mend ties and jointly face the global challenges of terrorism, global warming, genocide and nuclear proliferation.
       
Responding to the Berlin speech, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said "while Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a 'citizen of the world,' John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election."
      
"Barack Obama offered eloquent praise for this country, but the contrast is clear. John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it."