Obama's speech draws 200,000 in Berlin

Barack Obama Thursday told a vast crowd of 200,000 people in Berlin that Americans and Europeans must tear down walls between estranged allies, races and faiths, in a soaring challenge to a new political generation.

I personally would have loved to learn more when Obama delivered his speech at the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten district.

We need to tear walls down between religions, the haves and the have nots, end racism, introduce the rule of law or bring it back. Free the world of nuclear weapons.

Agreed, who in a sane mind wouldn't. How are we going to do it? No word on the path to illumination. The speech was fluffy, probably fluffier than what you should put on offer in Europe. And though rethorically full of exclamation marks, Obama's speech to the Berliners may have been flattering - but what it left seems a pink coloured question mark shaped cloud in Berlin's summer sky.

Obama's giving his much-anticipated Berlin speech even as we speak. It's a good speech, though nothing particularly revolutionary. More important than the words is the image: What looks like hundreds of thousands of Berliners, gathered in a historic square, looking expectantly at an American politician for inspiration and leadership. Our candidates frequently assert that a restoration of America's global leadership will be high on their agenda. But American leadership cannot be passed by an act of Congress, or ratified by the electoral college. It is the rest of the world that must accept our role, and for it to be worth anything, they must do so willingly. The crowd assembled in Berlin today is certainly willing.

The German flyers bear Obama’s campaign logo and say “Paid for by Obama for America.”

I’m surprised at this lapse in judgment in an otherwise well-oiled and professional Obama campaign. The last time they printed up campaign paraphenalia in a foreign language, it didn’t work out so hot for them.

So, this isn’t just some sober, high-minded foreign policy speech, part of a foreign trip occurring under the auspices of his official Senate office. It is a campaign rally occuring on foreign soil. They are using the same tactics to turn out Germans to an event as they would to any rally right here in America. This after Obama’s campaign said this:

“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser.

The sea of Germans drummed up by the Obama campaign will be used as props to tell us Americans how to vote, and the campaign isn’t trying to pretend otherwise. That’s breathtakingly arrogant, and par for the course for Barack Obama.