It is incumbent upon Obama to return the framing of his popularity back into a positive message. The McCain camp did a remarkable, if not entirely honorable, job of political ju-jitsu by turning Obama’s considerable support against him, especially after polls show public fatigue with the candidate after the wall-to-wall coverage of his trip abroad.

The Obama campaign must do much, much better than pointing out that McCain is one of the oldest celebrities of the talk show circuit, a rare political mistake that only hurt Obama by keeping the story alive.

It would be far more effective and more positive for the Obama campaign to reaffirm the Berlin crowd as a symbol of the political capital that he garners in Europe. With the recent events in Georgia, Obama can show that this goes beyond the warm and fuzzy feelings of being liked abroad.

Because of his enormous popularity with the people of Europe, Obama can use that support as leverage when dealing with NATO countries in applying pressure to Russia. Although it is clearly in the interest of NATO members to contain Russian aggression, the diplomatic resources available to Obama allow him to shape the debate in Europe in ways that McCain simply could not, particularly given the surprisingly hard-line position that he has taken.

While there remains a sliver of Americans who appreciate a return to the “moral clarity” of the first Bush term, back before the media bothered to fact check, Europeans tend to gag reflexively on this sort of cowboy diplomacy.

Obama surrogates need to hammer home that there is a substantive political power behind Obama’s popularity that would give him a considerable edge as Chief Diplomat of the nation.