Barack Obama's speech Thursday in Germany may have grabbed the attention of the crowd of 200,000 with its outline of his world view, but his introduction was enough to catch attention back home.

"I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before, although tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for president, but as a citizen -- a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world," Obama said from his perch next to the Victory Column in Berlin, from which he could see throngs of spectators.

To several observers at home, that opening was the speech's most noteworthy flourish.

"The opening line where he said he wasn't speaking as a candidate but as a citizen of the world ... it might have seemed appropriate for that audience, but you can't remove the candidacy factor from it," said Linda Hobgood, director of the Speech Center in the Department of Rhetoric and Communication Studies at the University of Richmond. "So it might have been more accurate to say, 'While I am a candidate, I am also a citizen of the world.'"

Click here for more on Obama's speech.

Hobgood said Obama's appearance was "absolutely" a campaign speech, demonstrated by the fact that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would not have been in Germany if he had lost the primaries to Sen. Hillary Clinton.

She added that, as he has done in the past, Obama accentuated his international roots to demonstrate his foreign policy credentials.

"I was curious about what I could hear in terms of the crowd response," Hobgood said. "There was a huge response in terms of his lineage to Kenya. I am sure again he was trying to emphasize that he was a citizen of the world."

The question of national or global citizenship is one that Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, seeks to exploit. In a recent ad on troop funding, the announcer states that the McCain will always put "country first."

As for Obama's speech in Berlin, the McCain campaign responded by noting Obama's "eloquent praise for this country" but said the contrast couldn't be more evident.

"While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a 'citizen of the world,' John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it."

The crowd that greeted Obama in Berlin was larger than the crowds at home on the campaign trail so far, however, Hobgood questioned whether images of a giant turnout of Germans will move American voters to support him.

"To get that crowd size and those backdrops ... it does give you pause. Who is he appealing to who is not going to vote for him already? Which voters will come over to him by virtue of this moment, by virtue of this speech situation? To tell you the truth, I can't come up with too many," she said.

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, a McCain ally who said he has traveled with the candidate to Germany maybe 25 times, suggested that Europeans paying attention to Obama is a double-edged sword.

"Americans haven't really cared for the attitude of our European friends, who are very seldom with it when it comes to the heavy lifting around the world," Kyl said.

And Republican strategist Andrea Tantaros called the speech "a big moment for Germany as a country, more so than for the United States."

Hobgood said that Obama's recent visit to troops in Iraq, part of a congressional delegation and not the campaign leg of his foreign trip, scored him a certain political advantage since it reached into the psyche of a domestic audience. This speech, however, while indirectly aimed at American voters, has the challenge of convincing them concerns of the German public matter.

"To some extent you use that audience of German citizens to impress voters back home ... and that's why I am trying to think who would be impressed by that who's not already voting for Obama," she said.

Patricia Murphy of CitizenJanePolitics.com also said the speech is drawing a line in the sand between the two candidates.

"When he said that he's a citizen of the United States and a citizen of the world, listen to the contrast with John McCain at the end of his ad. He said, 'country first.' I think that that will be a difference between the two campaigns going forward through the summer and into November," Murphy said.

In an interview with NBC News, Obama responded to McCain, who bluntly questioned his commitment to American security when he said this week that Obama would be willing to lose a war in order to win a campaign.

"I've never questioned that he wants to make America safer," Obama said. "And for him to suggest that ... I'm less concerned about the safety of my wife and daughter than he is, I think, was unfortunate."

Democratic strategic Kirsten Powers argued that Obama comes out ahead with his trip abroad.

"I think that John McCain is probably regretting a little bit egging on Obama to go to Iraq in the first place, and then now he went on this big tour where has photo ops every day,” Powers said. "And it makes him look more presidential."

Obama was forced to change the location of his address from Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other officials questioned whether such a distinctive landmark should be used by a candidate.

Hobgood sees a clear distinction between Obama and past American leaders who spoke in Germany.

"What portions I heard are not the likes of the Kennedy speech or the Reagan speech to the German people ... but again, I think this is an important distinction that needs to be made, which is they were both presidents," she said. "This is an elected official, but he's a U.S. senator who happens to be a candidate for president, and while all that is compelling it doesn't carry the authoritative force of an entire nation. He's not speaking on behalf of all Americans, he speaking as a candidate for public office."

Murphy said Obama is one of the most gifted orators to have run for the presidency, and he "almost has no competition" when it comes to delivering an address. She said the speech goes a long way to making him look presidential, as have other stops along his weeklong visit.

"It's designed to look to the voters who maybe don't feel he's ready to be the next president. But I think that this has gone a long way in bumping his numbers up," she said.

Hobgood added that she often hears Obama complimented for his oratory skills, but she argues his speeches are "occasionally filled with ambiguity."

"It's difficult to take some of the phraseology and discern exactly what is meant, but I think in a campaign sometimes that is essential," she said. "He's not the only one ... but the others have not been called orator or eloquent."

Click here for a full transcript of Obama's speech.