From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

The presidential campaign goes global.

Hello again, I'm Armin Alney, and this is To the Point.

From Public Radio International, a daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

This is the first time presidential candidates have campaigned overseas.

Barack Obama's been treated like a head of state.

John McCain says he'd like a big crowd in Germany, too, although not tell he's president.

But McCain also has campaigned in foreign countries, albeit with fewer cameras.

On to the point, both candidates want to demonstrate

they have what it takes to handle new global realities with strength and diplomacy. As Obama gone

overboard, many voters care deeply about the rest of the world, but what about the tradition

of American exceptionalism? On reporter's notebook later on, Iraqi politics and the Olympic Games.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine

T. MacArthur Foundation. Hello again, Warren Allene. Back with To the Point. This year's presidential

campaign is the first when both candidates have campaigned overseas. But Barack Obama's

foreign excursion has gotten a lot more attention than John McCain's. On To the Point,

will this week's foreign spectaculars generate confidence that a first-term senator can handle a changing world?

Will they backfire with voters who value experience over celebrity and think America first?

On reporter's notebook, Iraq's athletes won't compete this summer in Beijing.

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