Beyond the Dome

McCain arrives in Iraq in March. (Photo by Patrick Lair/U.S. Army via Getty Images)

Sure, John McCain is hammering Barack Obama for his lack of visits to Iraq because he thinks it's a good political issue. But without getting in the middle of that fight, let's look at the question another way: Which senator has taken more foreign trips in general, and not just to Iraq?

Hands down, McCain is the winner, according to the Senate's records of official overseas trips. He has certainly visited Iraq more than Obama, but the broader context is that McCain has been a more frequent flier to lots of countries.

Is that good or bad? It depends who you ask. One of the oldest debates about congressional travel, of course, is whether it serves a true educational purpose or whether the trips are just "junkets."

And it's not just about being worldly. No one is going to argue that Obama - the guy with the father from Kenya, who spent a good part of his childhood in Indonesia - has a sheltered view of the world because he hasn't taken enough congressional trips.

But if you assume there's something to the argument that lawmakers can make better decisions about foreign policy if they've been able to learn other countries' situations firsthand - as Obama did when he accompanied Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana to Russia and Ukraine in August 2005 to learn about their efforts to destroy nuclear and conventional weapons - it's worth knowing what countries the two senators have visited as part of their official duties.

So just for the record, Obama visited in Iraq once, in January 2006. During the time that Obama has been in the Senate, McCain has been to Iraq six times - in February 2005, March 2006, December 2006, April 2007, July 2007, and March 2008. The last trip took place after he had effectively won the Republican nomination.

And while Obama has made the rounds to other countries as well, including a highly publicized tour of Africa in August 2006, McCain has made repeat visits to Pakistan and traveled broadly throughout the Middle East. He's visited countries as diverse as Tunisia, Croatia, Turkey, and Georgia during the years he and Obama have overlapped in the Senate.

And McCain has visited Afghanistan - the other warfront - once, in 2005. Obama has never been there.

Full details after the jump.