Obama defends foreign tour

Barack Obama today defended his high-profile foreign excursion, arguing that America's problems can best be solved by working with allies overseas.

Republicans, including presidential rival John McCain, have criticized Obama for spending so much time abroad during the middle of the campaign with so many economic and other problems at home.

Obama, speaking to reporters outside British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official residence at 10 Downing Street in London, acknowledged that he might drop in the polls somewhat.

But he said, "The reason that I thought this trip was important is that I am convinced that many issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad. "And unless we get a handle on Iraq and Afghanistan, not only are we going to be less safe, but it's also going to be a huge drain on resources."

McCain's campaign has accused Obama of taking a "premature victory lap," but Obama noted that McCain had earlier been "telling me I was supposed to take this trip. He suggested it and thought it was a good idea."

"John McCain has visited every one of these countries post-primary that I have," said Obama, referring to McCain's foreign tour in March after he had clinched the Republican nomination. "So it doesn't strike me that we have done anything different than the McCain campaign has done, which is to recognize that part of the job of the next president, commander in chief is to forge effective relationships with our allies."

In an interview today with Fox News Channel, Obama also said that his policies had not changed from the trip. “I think that, as I said before, our broad strategic outlines are right,” he said.

Obama also defended perhaps the only hiccup on the tour, a controversy over a cancelled visit to wounded soldiers in Germany. Obama's office said it nixed the event after consultation with the Pentagon to not bring politics to the hospital , but the Pentagon said he could have visited as a senator, not a candidate.

"It was scheduled, we intended to go and we got wind that there was some concern that this might be perceived as political because we were using campaign resources," Obama said in the interview. "And at that point, the last thing I wanted to do is to in anyway distract the terrific work that’s being done in terms of treating our troops, by getting it fouled up by a bunch of politics....I didn’t want it to be a distraction.”