Remarks of Senator Barack Obama (as prepared for delivery)"A World that Stands as One"July 24th, 2008Berlin, Germany Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome. I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. 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. I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British. At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.
'Terrorists nukular terrorists Al Qaeda terrorists mushroom cloud over Paris - boo!'
'Ich bin eine speechmaker'
Plus some stuff about global warming and things that might actually matter.
Seems like a misfire to me. It's too self-consciously faux-Kennedy, and I don't think he quite has the gravitas to make it stick.
What does Germany think?
His Republican opponent John McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham followed Obama's words in "Schmidt's Fudge Haus" in Columbus (Ohio).
*Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Has McCain HQ been infiltrated by Obama moles? Is McCain just so plain stupid and deaf that he didn't realise this would be top-rank comedy?
Is The Onion running Campaign McCain?
So many questions. So much chortling and fun yet to happen before we have answers.
its as if its a bad Hollywood comedy and someones about to come in and say "from this point things can only get better". and from here on the disadvantaged loser will go on to win. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
McCain et al WANT TO LOSE! (Oh shit, NOW WHAT?!)
That's right. The fix is in. The neofascists have done enough damage to the US/world, they have accumulated enough resources, everything is in place for a DEPRESSION that will make the '20s/'30s look like the good old days. The Dems will get blamed for gas/food shartages in the US, Americans will be at each others' throats just to survive, and the neofascists will remind us of those good old Bush days (like you hear bullshit about the good old days of Clinton ... NONSENSE! I was there!) and we get a world fascist authoritarian state.
That's what's comin' kids. I said it first, here at ET. I hope I'm wrong; saying "I told you so" in three years (probably not possible; the internet will be co-opted for the cause; communications will be MUCH more restricted) won't feel good (with MY mouth, I'll already be hauled away).
Hopefully metavision will post a 4 and that's it. In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
Having Obama a week into his presidency do a surprise TV presentation where he said that the Reps have robbed everyone blind and concealed the fact. the economies screwed, and due to their torturing foreign nationals theres a shortage goodwill left to help the USA out of its current financial predicament. then roll out a New New Deal to deal with the problem. Place the blame early and with a big boot before the Media gets to do it to him might just be the best plan. Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Obama urges global fight against terror - Europe, World - The Independent
Uh, uh, uhbama is no David Hasselhoff.
I just came back from hearing Obama speak near the Victory column here in Berlin. The german crowd was polite, but not enthusiastic. Obama indirectly asked for more german involvment in Afganistan which met with silence. Also his going on about the airlift during the cold-war was a bit much seeing as the cold-war was as much a american made problem as it was a soviet one. This going on about the wall was also a bit much as he was not critical about the newest wall of exclusion namely the walls that the isreallis are builiding about which he said nothing. He mentioned getting rid of all atomic weapons - this after the US government is supporting a deal leading to increased Indian access to nuclear fuel could accelerate the atomic arms race with Pakistan. What the people in Berlin came to hear and expect was an apology from a high US official for the last years of the stupid and criminal Bush gang. What it got instead was a milk-toast speach saying nothing. Complain about this commentPosted by Wim from Berlin | 24.07.08, 20:57 GMT
I just came back from hearing Obama speak near the Victory column here in Berlin. The german crowd was polite, but not enthusiastic. Obama indirectly asked for more german involvment in Afganistan which met with silence. Also his going on about the airlift during the cold-war was a bit much seeing as the cold-war was as much a american made problem as it was a soviet one. This going on about the wall was also a bit much as he was not critical about the newest wall of exclusion namely the walls that the isreallis are builiding about which he said nothing. He mentioned getting rid of all atomic weapons - this after the US government is supporting a deal leading to increased Indian access to nuclear fuel could accelerate the atomic arms race with Pakistan. What the people in Berlin came to hear and expect was an apology from a high US official for the last years of the stupid and criminal Bush gang. What it got instead was a milk-toast speach saying nothing.
Complain about this comment
Posted by Wim from Berlin | 24.07.08, 20:57 GMT
This, on the other hand, is just plain insane.
I wonder if McCain's minions will use another photo-op of his to mobilise the evangelical base: Obama's meeting with Berlin's openly gay major. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The picture of Obama's hand in the crowd reminded me of that.
But I think it is just me ;)
The nationalism over there is scaring me. Am I the only one who has a problem with adulation of a perceived "strong leader"? I mean, are these people BLIND? Don't they see what they're admiring?
Waving flags... chanting... crowds... ohhh, hypnotic, yes, Barack, we BELIEVE!
It's scary as hell.
Thank you guys, again, for seeing it for what it is instead of being mindless morons.
Such frenzy seems telling about the state of the amurkan subconscious. and these are the "good guys." "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
That sound egotistical, and it is, but it also happens to be true.
Obama is a typical demagogue. He has decent manipulative skills, organizational ability, party connections, and sufficient financial backing to win the presidency. Listening to what he says, rather than some Pink Lollipop version, it becomes clear he isn't any big change from George:
It analyses the appearance of "four Obamas" - the restrained Obama, the Transatlantic Bridge-building Obama, the crafty campaigner Obama, and the save-the-world rhetoric Obama.
The article does mention the differential applause: strongest when saying things that "sentences that are actually totally self-evident", when Obama says Americans reject torture, when global warming is mentioned.
At the end, we get an explanation for the critical tone and the intro sentence I quoted in bilingual column above: all of the 40 yournalists invited after the speech were Americans. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Very snarky, perceptive, and dead-on right.
