Barack Obama’s first trip to Europe as the “presumptive” Democratic nominee will consist of stops in Great Britain, France and Germany.Only one public speech is planned on July 24 in Berlin.The exact location is not yet announced.But psericks has provided fascinating political, historical and even architectural details about the Brandenburger Tor and other possible venues.
Obama’s campaign has proven itself as masterful (if you forgive the faux blue Presidential seal and treatment of ladies in head scarves) at choreographing the backdrop for his speeches as he is in delivering them.Berlin should be no exception.It is a thriving pan-European cultural center 63 years after WWII and two short decades since German unification.And it is full of people who, like a majority of Germans, are wildly enthusiastic about Obama.Europeans generally appear to hope Obama will be the anti-Bush, sent to heal America’s heart and soul.So at whatever place Obama eventually speaks, there should be an enthusiastic throng and prospects for a great “photo op.”
Of course, photo ops can be tricky (see insert for a personal recollection of Jimmy Carter’s missing Caracas photo op).And truly meaningful and lasting memories, like the words and visuals of the Kennedy and Reagan visits, require an almost divine alignment of man, space and time.It is not certain that all these constellations are yet in proper orbit for Obama’s visit, however.For one thing, he will actually be speaking to two important but very different audiences.
Quest For The Perfect Photo Op
President Jimmy Carter visited Caracas, Venezuela in March 1978.I only vaguely recall the event even though I was personally there.It was supposed to be the start of an important visit to Latin America in the wake of the Panama Canal Treaty having been signed, ushering in a new era of US-Latin American relations.However, from my vantage point as a very junior officer serving at U.S. Embassy Caracas, it was not particularly eventful.And while the embassy’s senior staff jostled for “face time” with the President, I was assigned minor logistical duties.
I do clearly recall though that the White House advance team was obsessed about finding the perfect photo op.There were rumors it might appear in or maybe even make the cover of Time magazine.They decided to go for a still shot of Carter and Carlos Andres Perez (CAP), at the time riding high at the peak of Venezuela’s oil boom, walking through the colorful gardens at La Casona, the presidential mansion.I’ve searched, but could not find such a photo through Google.
There is, however, a small picture of the airport arrival ceremony in Google images and The American Presidency Project’s transcript of both presidents’ remarks.Reading the remarks today evokes pathos.For less than a year later, Ayatollah Khomeini would return to Iran, another OPEC country, to lead the revolution that would ultimately cause Carter’s downfall.And in his second term 15 years later, CAP would be forced from of office on corruption charges after surviving a military coup in 1992 by a young lieutenant colonel named Hugo Chavez.
The online transcript of the ceremony says that Carter delivered his speech at Simon Bolivar airport in Maiquetia in Spanish.If he did, I missed it.I was too busy behind-the-scenes making sure the President’s entourage boarded the cars waiting on the tarmac to whisk them all to Caracas.
First and most important is the audience that will not even be there: the American people.They, of course, will elect the next President.In a normally slow summer news cycle, Obama’s current world tour -- which also includes stops in Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Afghanistan -- will be closely watched here at home.However since the US media cannot be relied on to accurately report this trip, the Berlin speech is probably the most important opportunity between the last primary in early June and the Denver convention in late August for Obama to speak directly to American voters.
The other audience will include the people at the speech itself, as well as millions of other Europeans who are watching our presidential election with awe and expectation.For reasons related to their education, media focus and historic reliance on America, this audience is extremely well-informed about our politics.In fact, the average European may be as well or better informed about our national politics as the average American.But after the 2000 and 2004 elections, many Europeans have lost confidence in our ability to conduct elections and in our capacity to make a rational decision about who will lead us.
As much as Americans and Europeans have in common, and there are many ties that remain strong, these two audiences will assess Barack Obama’s performance in Berlin with different concerns and sometimes contradictory perspectives.Americans need to get to know Obama even if they don’t want to.Europeans want to get to know him even if they don’t need to.
Americans face this summer preoccupied by immediate economic problems here at home: the rising cost of gas and food, loss of jobs, home foreclosures and failing financial institutions.As Europeans head out on their traditional extended summer holidays they worry that America’s economic meltdown is dragging down their own banks and jeopardizing their unprecedented standard of living.
America worries about how it can safely extricate its troops from Iraq and restore the rule of law undermined after 9/11.Europe worries that it will be pressured to step up its commitment of forces in Afghanistan.And many Europeans wonder if the next Administration will be prepared to prosecute US officials responsible for violating international laws, conducting renditions, maintaining secret prisons and practicing torture.
America is struggling to assimilate the latest wave in a long history of immigration.Europe is wondering if its current immigrant population explosion is a threat to its religious and cultural identity, like the Ottoman conquest that was blocked somer 300 years ago.
Americans were united geographically following the Civil War, but national partisan divisions based largely on “values” and ideology now stymie government’s ability to provide for the public weal.European countries have for the first time achieved a semblance of transnational unity based on voluntary association, but they now struggle with how to proceed with institutional and policy harmonization.
When Barack Obama speaks in Berlin, he will be simultaneously addressing these disparate and sometime conflicting realities.His greatest challenge will not be adapting his style, but accommodating the substance of his oratory.For trying to satisfy one audience may not please the other.The challenge calls for an artful and nuanced construction of both words and ideas.We know that Obama is capable of meeting that challenge, but it will help considerably to have a great speechwriter who can provide the quotes to go along with the visuals.
wizinit is the nom de guerre of a veteran diplomat and fan of the late columnist Art Buchwald who writes serious analysis and political satire. If you would like to be notified whenever wizinit posts a new article click on the logo to join Food Tasters For Obama.
Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, centrally located, surrounded by federal government buildings, and opening up onto a massive park, is essentially the German equivalent of the Washington Mall.
And an event from the steps of the Brandenburg Gate holds the same historical resonance, especially for an American president, as, say, Martin Luther King's rally on the steps of the Washington monument.
The location is all the more potent given that --- during the years of the Cold War --- the Berlin Wall ran directly behind the Brandenburg Gate, leaving it visible but inaccessible from West Berlin, as seen here in a photo of Kennedy's famous visit in June of 1963:
The Brandenburg Gate is, to grasp for another comparison, something like Germany's Eiffel tower, a national symbol commonly sported on coffee mugs and tee-shirts. Easily one of the most recognizable locations in Germany, it's flanked by the German parliament building on the one side and, tellingly, by the new $145-million American embassy on the other.
Arguably, given Kennedy and Reagan, no other location in the world still holds the same symbolism for America's historical commitment to freedom and democracy.
German diplomats have apparently been at work behind the scenes to encourage Obama to speak in Berlin:
Germany's ambassador to Washington, 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.
Obama campaign staff have been in touch with the Mayor's office in Berlin, and Secret Service agents have reportedly already scouted out the area around the Brandenburg Gate. The German news-magazine Spiegel also reports the date has been tentatively set for July 24th.
Interestingly, the Chancellor's office (Germany's executive branch) has apparently shown some hesitation about the choice of location. According to a statement described in the German press --- by my own translation:
"The Brandenburg Gate is the best known --- and one of the most historically significant --- places in Germany," according to the Chancellor's office. In the past, this location has only been used on special occassions for political events, and until now has only been offered to elected presidents.
The Chancellor's office worries that the precedent set by using the Brandenburg Gate might spoil its special significance and make it the scene of more frequent political rallies. The final decision, however, lies not with Germany's center-right Chancellor, Angela Merkel, but with Berlin's heavily Social-Democratic provincial senate, which has apparently already signaled its full support.
Will Barack Obama Have Another Chance to Become President
I think not. The Clinton campaign has so far successfully applied the Rovian tactics that Bill Clinton so admired when Bush took down John Kerry in 2004. The character assassination of Barack Obama has been swift and merciless. I expect that any damage done in 2008 will be permanent, and will not be repaired by subsequent apologies or regrets. That is, unless Obama proves he is willing and able to take Hillary down with him, sacrificing some principles (and really pleasing a lot of anti-Clinton voters in the process). That may even come to include withholding his support or endorsing a third party candidate.
Pleas to Hillary that she not distort the facts and to Bill to "cool it" will not do the trick. Is Barack Obama capable of striking back without holding back? It requires relentlessly ripping every aspect of Hillary's 35-years-of-experience myth and dirtying hands unearthing all the corruption and lies that are buried under the "fully-vetted" fairy tale. The Republicans will do the job in the Fall in any case, so why not? And if religious leaders like Kirbyjon Caldwell really want to help Obama, they should start by encouraging their flock to conduct their own email campaign decrying the "good Christians" who anonymously took part in the bearing-false-witness campaign and promoting intolerance.
With two days left in South Carolina, will this prove to be Obama's last stand, or the start of his resurrection?
The debate swirling around the blogosphere today over Obama's comments about Reagan is tiresome and predictable. Happily, there are any number of solid responses that allow me to sit this one out:
Matt Yglesias argues that it's pretty obvious that Obama admires Reagan's ability to deliver sweeping change, and that actually that's the kind of claim that we should expect our candidates to be making.
Ezra Klein makes a similar point about how Obama admires Reagan for having managed to shift the center of American politics. But then he goes on to make a more compelling and original point about the value of this revising of the meaning of the Reagan legacy can be effective in politics:
He's reconstructing it as accountability in government rather than smallness of government, clarity of purpose rather than conservatism of purpose, dynamism and entrepreneurship rather than backlash and upward redistribution. So what's going on here is twofold.
First, Obama is suggesting he has a fairly grandly ideological view of the president's role, and that it includes harnessing the ideological forces of the moment to push the country in a new direction.
Second, he's sanitizing and subtly reworking Reagan's legacy, and more than Reagan's legacy, the lessons of the 80s, so they fit with a liberal worldview, rather than undermine it. Oftentimes, I think Obama's unifying rhetoric is a little naive and soft, but this actually seems like a fairly loud dog whistle mixed with a fairly smart attempt to revise history.
There is, however, a small picture of the airport arrival ceremony in Google images and The American Presidency Project’s 
The Brandenburg Gate is, to grasp for another comparison, something like Germany's Eiffel tower, a national symbol commonly sported on coffee mugs and tee-shirts. Easily one of the most recognizable locations in Germany, it's flanked by the German parliament building on the one side and, tellingly, by the 
