| Today the German Chancellor's spokesman confirmed her displeasure with the plan for an Obama speech at the Brandenburg Gate: Thomas Steg, a spokesman for the chancellor, said Mrs. Merkel had “only limited understanding for using the Brandenburg Gate as an election campaign backdrop,” and that she had “great skepticism as to whether it is appropriate to bring an election campaign being fought not in Germany but in the United States to the Brandenburg Gate.” As Mr. Steg put it, “No German candidate would think of using the National Mall or Red Square in Moscow for rallies, because it would be considered inappropriate.”
These are concerns that should have been addressed to campaign staff privately. To leak those concerns to the press is a diplomatic catastrophe, given that Obama might be the next president of the United States. The problem is compounded by the fact that the German government has sent such mixed signals, with the Foreign Ministry and City of Berlin approving the plan, and reports that the German ambassador to the United States, Klaus Scharioth, "has reportedly worked for weeks to convince Obama's campaign that the candidate's only large European appearance should take place in Berlin" --- in other words, a public appearance, exactly what the Chancellor's office now thinks would be inappropriate in a foreign country for a political candidate. I have wondered for days what the Chancellor's office could possibly be thinking. The Foreign Ministry, in the hands of the Social-Democratic party, voiced its support for an Obama speech at the Gate, according to a newspaper account (my own translation): As once more proven by the opening of the American embassy [last week], the Gate is a "part of a collective German-American memory." Because of this background, a speech "before or by" the Gate, whether by Obama or the Republican candidate John McCain, is an "expression of the lively German-American friendship."
Meanwhile, feeding the debate, the Bush administration has continued to add pressure on the German government to tone down its welcome of Obama, first through contacts at the G-8 Summit in Japan, and now today through a Deputy Treasury Secretary: Indeed, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt told the mass circulation tabloid Bild that "it would be nice if the German government would focus on strengthening its contacts to us rather than already beginning to look for our successors."
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