The BBC's James Coomarasamy is following Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate conducts a tour of US allies around the globe.
Here, our correspondent gives his day-by-day account of the progress of the tour.
21 JULY: AMMAN, JORDAN
I am not one of the boys on the bus.
I am not the boy in the bubble.
No - although I am reporting on Senator Obama's trip to the Middle East and Europe - the BBC is not among the candidate's "travelling press", the group of reporters whose last-minute appearance, in a whirlwind of half-unfolded laptops and hastily-hoisted tripods, Austrian Government Headed for Early Elections ...
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But, then, I am in pretty good company.
An American colleague who gained one of the few coveted places, tells me that - apart from the French news agency, AFP - no other foreign reporters have made it into the inner sanctum.
To be honest, that is no great surprise.
The extra security concerns in the region, the presence of anchors from the three major US networks, the advance billing that led to far greater numbers of press requests than usual: all mitigate against satisfaction for all but the smallest number of journalists.
But there is a suspicion that there is more than space and security at issue here; that the Obama campaign sees the foreign media - with its annoying habit of going off-message - as simply too risky to have close at hand, on a trip with plenty of its own inherent risks.
The main risk being: how to make the candidate look worldly-wise and ready to lead, without appearing arrogant, to the watching American voter.
I have arrived in Amman, Jordan, where the sweltering heat does not feel that different to the one I left behind in Washington DC, awaiting the senator's arrival from his war zone sojourn in Afghanistan and Iraq.
My journey began with a warning.
Just as I was heading to my gate at Washington's National Airport, I noticed a shop featuring life-size cardboard cut-outs of Barack Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain.
Mr Obama's wore one of those familiar, languid smiles.
McCain's on the other hand, had something resembling a frown on it.
Call it a reporter's paranoia, but his gaze seemed to follow me as I snaked my way through the security line.
The Arizona Senator has been known to quote the Beach Boys, but it was an old Simple Minds song that came to mind: "Don't you forget about me."
(BBC)
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