Underwhelmed?
Germans emerge from their Uh-bama stupor
Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin’s Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious—he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world.
... he is a typical American—an idealist in the true spirit of the American success story who is now very casually making his claim to becoming something akin to the president of the world.
...He also could have said: We are a world power, the only one on the planet at the moment, and I intend to act as if this were the case. But you’re also allowed to participate in the attempt to try to save the world—at least a bit of it. In that sense I am different from George W. Bush, very different.
...Anyone who saw him make the short way from the Victory Column in Berlin on Thursday to the podium saw a man with the serious gait of a basketball player, [uh oh]...
...However, he is also certain to demand the help of the Germans, Brits and French in Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s not going to let NATO shirk its duty—and therein lie the perils of the engaging “we” and the catchy “Yes, we can.” Otherwise all these hard-nosed Europeans will hope and pray that the future President Obama isn’t really all that serious about the saving the world of tomorrow, the polar caps, Darfur and the poppy harvest over in Afghanistan.
...George W. Bush is yesterday, the Texas version of the arrogant world power. Obama is all about today—the “everybody really just wants to be brothers and save the world” utopia. As for us, we who sometimes admire and sometimes curse this somewhat anemic, pragmatic democracy, we will have to quickly get used to Barack Obama, the new leader of a lofty democracy that loves those big nice words—words that warm our hearts and alarm our minds.
Let’s allow ourselves to be warmed today, by this man at the Victory Column. Then we’ll take a further look.
*cough*
Why, yes—that is a flag pin. [American flag, that is]
Oh, man that photo is begging for a caption contest.
Posted by Venomous Kate on 07/25/08 at 12:01 PM
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