Analyzing Obama's Berlin Speech

Barack Obama is not a JFK or a Ronald Reagan, even if he seems to think he is. For one, even if you hated those presidents, you could not deny that they were the leaders of the free world. It takes an immense amount of arrogance for Obama to act like he is already president giving speeches to large German crowds in Berlin. This same type of arrogance was displayed when he created a version of the presidential seal for his campaign which was quickly abandoned after criticism. All Obama was doing was giving a campaign speech to Germans. It belittled the important "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" and "Tear Down That Wall" speeches given in the context of the struggle for civilization that was the Cold War. It trivialized the speeches given in the midst of the showdown between capitalist Democracy and Communist tyranny. Obama was giving a stump speech that he hoped would help him become president, and that's about it. Furthermore, not only does his speech demonstrate unhealthy amounts of narcissism, it was very short on actual substance. At this point that is expected. It comes as little surprise that his speech in Berlin has not helped him at all in the eyes of the American people. Gallup places Obama at %45 and McCain at %43 after this speech in front of hundreds of thousands of European sycophants.

I shall now analyze certain parts of what Obama actually said in Germany's capital. He starts out with a lie when says that "tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President." He is not fooling anyone because that is exactly what he was speaking to them as. Obama said he was speaking as "a citizen -- a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world," whatever a citizen of the world even is.

Obama goes on to discuss Harry Truman's famous Berlin airlift of food and supplies in response to Joseph Stalin's blockade of that city. Obama says that "retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin." Why is it that Barack Obama claims the Berlin airlift teaches us today to not retreat in the face of a dangerous evil, yet he has preached retreat from Iraq no matter the conditions on the ground since long before the surge successes. Would unconditional "retreat" from what Osama Bin Laden calls "the world’s millstone and pillar...the capital of the caliphate” not allow for Jihadist terrorism to march across Iraq? Had we followed Obama's advice and began withdrawal instead of a surge could we not have said that where the Iraq war would end another war could easily begin? How come Baghdad does not stand in the way of a victory of Jihadism today as Berlin could have stood as an ultimate victory for Communism in past years had we not stood our ground? Obama says the airlift to Berlin was "the largest and most unlikely rescue in history" that "brought food and hope to the people of this city." Yet he fails to explain why he does not believe that the United States should work toward hope for Iraqis? He says that "the odds were stacked against success" in Berlin yet he claimed the failed policies in Iraq warrant retreat.

He discusses some of the problems in today's world and how as members of a "global citizenship" we must stand together. He does bring up serious issues, though of course there is nothing in terms of actual substance as to how to confront these problems other than saying we should all be united. Being united behind no specific action is incredibly easy. Right after mentioning the September 11th attacks he says in the very next sentence that "cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya." I guess Obama is against anyone who owns a car in Boston. I guess Obama is not too worried about losing the Boston vote. I am glad to hear Bostoners are apparently as unfriendly to the environment as Beijing factory owners. I understand that environmentalist rhetoric plays well in that neck of the woods, but should he really lump in Boston drivers for the sake of some alliteration in a speech? I notice that Berlin is a city that starts with the letter "B" yet he did not say anything about cars in Berlin.

Barack Obama then went on to to make endless wall metaphors in reference to the fall of the Berlin wall. "That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down." Meaningless metaphors and cliches. Rational people are not erecting pointless walls. They oppose illegal immigration and Islamic fanaticism and I would hope this is not what Obama means by these vague wall metaphors. As a matter of fact, I can't give you all the meaningless cliches in this speech or I would bore you to death. Of course the Berlin wall was an actual wall dividing free West Berlin from Communist East Berlin, not some metaphorical cliche. When Reagan defiantly proclaimed that Gorbachev should tear down the wall he was declaring U.S. policy and showing strength in front of the Soviet Union. People even criticized him for it at the time, even though it is one of his very finest moments as President. He was not making fuzzy feel-good declarations that have no real meaning or impact.

This is the moment. This is the moment. This is the moment for Barack Obama to get off the stage and go campaign in the country where the election will actually be held. Obama went on with a string of "this is the moment" statements. Many of his "this is the moment" statements express sentiments that no sensible American would argue with, though you never know with some Europeans. Though I can't even figure out what the moment of building on "the wealth that open markets have created" and sharing "its benefits more equitably" because "we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many" even means? It is such nonsensical socialist sounding vaguery that you cannot tell what at all the man is specifically talking about. He also says that "this is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions." Has Bush not been sending that message to Iran with the Europeans for some time now and the Iranians have repeatedly rejected it? What if Iran continues to say no to American and European messages? Will that be the moment that President Obama takes out Iran's nuclear facilities? Obama states that "despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close." How are you supporting the Iraqis if you are bringing the war to a close? What do you think the troops are there for? They are there to "support the millions of Iraqis" with a strong enough Iraqi army and secure enough Iraq so that the Iraqi government can take responsibility for their own future. How does "bringing this war to a close" no matter what the situation was or will be on the ground have anything to do with those objectives? Of course Obama says it is the moment for America to "reduce the carbon we send into our atmospheres," though I doubt he will demand that nations like China or India self-impose any restrictions on productivity. It is fairly simple for this to be "the moment to stand as one" if standing as one requires no concrete action from Europe itself. He then goes on to say that "sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust -- not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here." If I remember my history, were there not quite a few bombs falling on Berlin just a few short years earlier? If my memory suits me, I even recall a couple of planes sending a very powerful "direct message" to Japan. It is unfortunate that the pilots that dropped bombs on Nazi Germany were winning only a "military victory" instead of "hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust."

There was also a few paragraphs toward the end where Obama for some reason felt he had to preempt a little praise for American ideals with America bashing. "Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people? People of Berlin -- people of the world -- this is our moment. This is our time. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions." So America is a band of lawless bigoted xenophobic torturers now? Why does he feel the need to bash America in front of a foreign audience?

Unlike Kennedy or Reagan this speech will not go down in history. It will be a footnote about a campaign stump speech made by a guy who was not even President but acted like he was. It had no memorable lines unless you consider "this is the moment" memorable. (The video below demonstrates that "this is the moment" is not even unique to his speech in Berlin but a verbatim repeat of his stump speeches in America). It will be forgotten. America was not impressed by Obama's world tour as the polls show no increase in popularity. Some people, especially those in the media, are far too easily impressed by Barack's stump speeches. His oratory in prepared speeches before adulating fans cannot hide that he says so little of substance.

Perhaps this is the moment. The moment for America to send the Democratic party and the rest of the world be they freinds or enemies a message by electing John McCain as the next president.




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