Am Grossen Stern

Obama did away with the babble about the Victory Column with a single deft line, which I can’t find in his official text — something like “We stand here at a monument to war, in the middle of a Europe at peace.” That took care of his critics, even if you fully swallowed the stuff about Hitler. The crowd, at least, was warm, and no one seemed offended that he was talking under a monument once transplanted or touched once or something by real Nazis. People even cheered when he said he loved America.

It was a good speech — for a campaign whistlestop by a junior senator from Illinois. It set a tone without embarrassing anyone. It was even substantial if we could somehow hold him to every bright thing he promised. More European help in Afghanistan was the least ambitious item on the list: He also conjured a chorus of well-intentioned countries to fight terrorism, a choir of world commitment to end climate change, and a (surprising) wistful promise to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Well, why not.

I’m just glad he didn’t try to speak German or make some lame joke about jelly donuts. He went on for about half an hour, which is wordy compared to Kennedy (whose speech was really pretty short). People did laugh at his pronunciation of “Wowereit,” but I doubt anyone will spin urban legends or chit-chat about it for decades to come. It wasn’t that kind of speech.

“Ich bin ein Berliner,” by the way, was also scribbled in at the last minute. Kennedy thought it was too much rhetoric until he saw the reaction of the crowd during his tour through the city — which lasted all of eight hours.

UPDATE: Al Giordano points out that Fox News commentators were “stuttering” to come up with some criticism of Obama. He thinks the candidate “didn’t give an inch to those who wanted to portray giving a speech abroad as somehow un-American.” I think that’s right. It was a deflective speech. It didn’t say anything new, but it fended off criticism and passed the first test for a man who was supposed to trip himself up with lots of embarrassing foreign-policy gaffes. I can’t say I feel sorry for McCain. The trip to Iraq was his idea, remember. Obama just turned it into a grand tour of Europe and the Middle East, and made sure it ginned up good press.

edited a little on Friday

     posted 24 July 2008 by Michael Scott Moore

  1. I thought the tone was pretty good and stayed away from copied cliche rehetoric, even with his “walls” references—that came off ok.

    I was surprised that he didn’t hit more envronmental stuff, I guess. That just seems like such a softball into his wheelhouse.

    The basic conservative spin in the US seems to be that he is the perfect “European Candidate.” Try just googling that term with his name. Sheeesh…first it was all about how he was going to make a screw up and now it’s that he was too good on the trip.

    McCain went to a German deli today!!!! That’s just a step above the oil platform he was suppose to be on if not for Dolly. (Since when did we name hurricanes after cloned sheep? I digress…)

    e

    — e    Jul 25, 02:48 am    #

  2. I loved the DJing. For a moment we all thought Barry was going to walk on stage to the beats of Sympathy for the Devil. But I think the last track before he appeared was Bowie.

    What struck me most was the admission that he wants a world with no nuclear weapons. That’s pretty radical and retro.

    — Bowleserised    Jul 25, 09:03 am    #