[Gypping a portion of her post. Follow the link to read it all....]
Attempting a War Speech Without a War
As far as Barack Obama's speech in Berlin, I think Charles Krauthammer, as usual, summed it up the best on Brit Hume's show.I think there was a problem of scale in this speech. After all, the disparity between the grandness of the venue, the vastness of the crowd, and the smallness of this speech was quite striking.
This has been a week for reviewing what made this venue so historic - the speeches by JFK in 1963 and Reagan's speech in 1987. What made those speeches so great was how they fit into the context of their times. When JFK declared that he was a Berliner, he was proclaiming American support for West Berlin which, without American support in 1948 and later, would have been swallowed into the rest of East Germany. He was responding to the Soviet construction of the Berlin Wall to keep their citizens imprisoned in Eastern Europe. When you read either JFK's famed Inaugural Address or his Berlin speech, his strength of purpose is not something you hear today from Democrats. Compare that Inaugural Address with Obama's speech. Could Obama say this?Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Or what JFK said in 1963 in Berlin.There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.
When Reagan spoke in 1987 he was defying the seeming consensus that we should simply learn to live with the Soviet Union. What we forget is that Reagan was not popular when he traveled to Europe in the 1980s. The Wall Street Journal reminds us today that Reagan faced hundreds of thousands of protesters in 1987.It is hard not to be moved by the sight during the speech of hundreds of American flags being waved, rather than burned. Then again, the last time a major American political figure delivered an open-air speech in Berlin, 10,000 riot police had to use tear gas and water cannons to repel violent demonstrators. It was June 1987, the speaker was Ronald Reagan, his message was: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Press accounts characterized the line as "provocative"; the Soviets called it "war-mongering"; 100,000 protesters marched against Reagan in the old German capital of Bonn. Two years later, the Berlin Wall fell.
Reagan's speech is a lesson in the difference between popularity and statesmanship.
So, despite our being at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama didn't frame his speech yesterday in that context, although he did tell the Germans that we should fight together against a variety of ills in the world. His theme was not about one specific enemy as we faced in the Cold War, but how we need to unite as one against a whole host of enemies and global problems: terrorism, militants in Afghanistan, the spread of nuclear weapons, working with Russia, improving trade, tensions with Iran, problems with Iran, conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians, helping Iraq, and global warming. The very breadth of his list that it is "our moment" to confront is so broad that it loses meaning. All he has are aspirations rather than any substance behind what he is "hoping" to accomplish.
Everything I heard was.... uhhh, umm, um, and uhh.... the man is worthless without a teleprompter. The man cannot think-- let alone talk --on his feet. It was all platitude, all self-loathing [the "America is bad" kind] donkey-swill. The most disgusting display was his refusal to go and visit the troops after he was told he couldn't bring a camera crew.
This trip is supposed to make him look "presidential"? He played at being president the whole time, but why hasn't his percentages zoomed skyward? Perhaps because he's campaigning in front of people who can't vote for him.
From the tail end of Betsy's post, a quote from David Frum:
In all these phrases — and many more — there is always something missing: human beings. It was not a “shadow” that spread across Eastern Europe in 1945. It was an army. Nor is it “materials” and “secrets” that build bombs — it is bomb-makers. It was not “networks” that struck in Madrid and London and the rest. It was terrorists acting in the name of Islam.
....Obama’s vague language is the product of an unrealistic mind. He denies the reality of conflict — and flinches from the obligations of self-defense. Obama has risen to power by using a soothing cloud of meaningless words to conceal displeasing truths and avoid difficult choices.
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You don't think a speech about international cooperation in times of trouble fits in the context of our times? I'd suggest that many would disagree strongly.
That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.
Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof...
But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"
People of the world – look at Berlin!
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle...
In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.
In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth – that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe...
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.
An impressive speech, I'd say.
Walls between the countries with the least and countries with the most? Such as? And please describe how the wall is made manifest. Our country, assuming it is one of those with the most referred to by this carnival barker, reaches out to the poorer nations constantly through foreign aid AND private donations. No wall there.
Walls between races and tribes? Racism won't go away and he's unlikely to make a difference when he plays the race card himself.
Natives and immigrants? In this country, it's between natives and illegal immigrants, or more accurately, foreign invaders. A wall here is absolutely necessary for security. Rational people have no problem with that.
Walls between Christian, Muslim and Jew? Inaccurate. The wall is between Christians and Jews on one side, and Muslims on the other. This is because a percentage of Muslims is intent on killing Jews and Christians and refuse to assimilate when they've immigrated to Judeo/Christian countries. Where, I might add, they are largely welcomed more eagerly than are Christians or Jews in Islamic countries. This is another wall not likely to be even made to quiver by the smooth talking of a Barry Obamanation.
Yeah, pretty speech. As meaningless as most of his are no matter how well done.
"In all these phrases — and many more — there is always something missing: human beings. It was not a “shadow” that spread across Eastern Europe in 1945. It was an army. Nor is it “materials” and “secrets” that build bombs — it is bomb-makers. It was not “networks” that struck in Madrid and London and the rest. It was terrorists acting in the name of Islam"
Out of all the verbage B. Hussein Obama has at his disposal, why can't he bring himself to call a spade a spade?
I mentioned this on my blog one time: One of the times Obama defended his refusal to wear a flag pin, he said, "I revere the flag. I revere America." and it struck me as an odd choice of words. "Revere"? Is there some logical reason he can't seem to spit out the words, "I love the flag" or "I love this country"?
Is "love" hard for him to say? And why? We can only speculate. But it kind of goes along with the aforementioned statement, doesn't it?
People who try to impress others with what they percieve to be their own intellect make me tend to distrust them. How about you?
Exactly. What walls? John Murtha calling Marines cold blooded killers before ever a charge could be leveled against them? Harry Reid telling the nation and the world that we have lost the war? Barack Hussein Obama admitting that the surge worked but insisting he still would have voted against it? Who's working against the United States of America? The Germans? No. The Democrats have been working at destroying not just a sitting president but this nation's efforts at winning a war. Democrats have been content to allow more than 4 thousand soldiers die so long as America lost and they could shout "Hurrah! We Lost! Let's Hang the Hated Bush!!" Perhaps a little over-done. But if nothing else, it's allowed Barack Hussein the audacity to march on foreign soil and talk America down. Pretend to be president, and talk America down.
One huge difference between Barack Hussein Obama and both JFK and Ronald Reagan..... neither JFK nor Ronald Reagan talked America down when they gave truly inspiring speeches in Germany.
How many of those hundreds of thousands of Germans were there for Barack, and how many were there for the free concerts?
200,000... or 20,000? Obama's Crowd in Berlin
Let's also remember there were two German musical acts performing for free just prior to the Messiah's speech.
So why did I accept the number given by media? Because our natural tendency is to believe what media tells us. Read the article I linked to in my previous comment.
As it turns out, Obama's campaign organizers are responsible for supplying the inflated numbers to both German and American media.
Look at these photos.
Crowd Shot 1
Crowd Shot 2
Crowd Shot 3
Apparently the crowd immediately around the monument is just those who went through the security checkpoints. Spread out around the monument were crowds watching on large screens. I will say there were fewer crowd shots than I expected. But though I had to look high and low to find these shots I found NO other news articles or blog posts questioning the size of the crowd. So if there is media collusion to inflate the size of the crowd then John McCain and Sean Hannity have signed onto the lie too.