Georgia crisis helps McCain for now

McCain is also dispatching his two closest supporters in the Senate, Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina and Joseph Lieberman (I) of Connecticut, to Georgia to assess the situation on the ground. Senator Lieberman criticized Obama Monday at a fundraiser for McCain in New Jersey, calling Obama a "gifted young man" but "not ready to be president on Jan. 20th of 2009."

Obama, meanwhile, has been issuing statements on Georgia from his vacation spot in Hawaii and sending his foreign-policy surrogates to speak on his behalf. But as long as the economy remains issue No. 1 for voters, Obama is not likely to lose major traction in the campaign because of the flare-up in the Caucasus. Many Americans are on vacation themselves and the Olympics are filling cable and broadcast TV. In addition, the other bombshell from last Friday, former Democratic candidate John Edwards's admission of an extramarital affair, is still a hot topic in political circles.

McCain's intense focus on the Georgia situation also may not play well with voters weary of American military involvement abroad. "McCain's statement, saying 'We're all Georgians,' that's a little scary for a lot of Americans," says Tom Henriksen, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and author of the book "American Power after the Berlin Wall. "I don't know if America wants to get involved in any more ethnic conflicts."

Some voters have been left wondering what to make of either candidate's ability to deal with crises like the one in Georgia.

"McCain, he's too erratic for me," says Hilton Turner, a retired classics professor in New Wilmington, Pa. "And Obama is a very thoughtful person, but I don't know where that leads." He says he voted for Obama in the primary, but preferred some of the other Democrats who had dropped out by then.

Jon Roe, an auto mechanic in Keene, N.H., who voted for McCain in the primary, sounds equally unsure of foreign policy under either man. "Does either of them really know what they're doing?" he asks. "I like McCain compared to Obama, but it makes me wonder: Is this the best the nation has to offer?"

One thing is clear about the US reaction: the administration is now taking heat for its initial response. President Bush was in Beijing for the Olympics and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was on vacation, when the crisis broke. On Aug. 13, the reliably conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page asserted that "US credibility is … on the line."

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