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NBC had Richard Engel prepositioned in Baghdad for Barack Obama's trip to Iraq. The other two network's White House correspondents ,ABC's Jake Tapper and CBS' Bill Plante, taken by surprise by the secret trip eastwards were left to file in Istanbul. CBS actually had Chip Reid aboard Air Force One with the President. He voiced over footage of the "raucous troops" who greeted Obama in the rotunda of a palace built for former dictator Saddam Hussein as part of Plante's report. NBC's Engel called the troops "frenzied, excited, like a rock concert" with the biggest applause line coming when Obama promised to hand over military chores in Iraq to its own forces. ABC's Tapper noted that during Obama's trip to Turkey "a big topic" was to seek permission to use routes through Turkey as part of the military exit. Turkey "did not allow US troops to enter into Iraq through their country at the start," Tapper reminded us.
George Stephanopoulos, anchor of ABC's This Week, took the opportunity of this final stop to assess Obama's overall performance during his weeklong trip. Notwithstanding his lack of success on global G20 stimulus, on NATO troops for Afghanistan, or on United Nations opposition to North Korea's rocketry, Stephanopoulos gave the President a thumbs up for his confidence and sense of command: "When you have got American troops fighting on two fronts you have to end that visit with a strong visit with the troops. And he did." On NBC, Chuck Todd (as part of the Engel videostream) judged the "real accomplishment" of the trip to be Obama's "enhanced Presidential stature."
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