Ich bin ein schreckliche lautsprecher.
Obama was literally on display in the bubble he lives in, as his security had him behind thick glass that looked much like a fish aquarium. He removed his suit jacket as sweat began soaking his face to reveal this emperor really has no clothes. The absence of a U.S. Marine to hold a comforting umbrella over his dripping head was obvious. The crowd was noticeably far smaller than his arrogant and presumptuous 2008 campaign speech in Berlin. Early press releases put the number at 6000, but as the afternoon ticked-on here in the States that number dropped. I even heard one radio news report referring to the crowd as “guests”, which caused me to contemplate many gathered might have been officially invited to the event. (Yesterday’s anti-IRS TEA Party in D.C. is estimated to have drawn roughly 15,000.) The German audience’s responses to his weakly power-pointed and passionless speech were tepid, even when it was obvious he offered them a pause to insert applause. His two obvious go-to talking points that could be fished out of the deluge of sunbaked rambling were aimed at our biggest threat (outside of Catholic schools), “climate change”, and the dismantling of our nuclear arsenal in the face of our enemies toiling-away in clandestine locations to build theirs. The staunch Obama defending cheerleaders of the media were quick to deflect.
While, as we have been told by the AGW cultists, it is impossible for the Sun to have any control over our planet’s warming or cooling climate, it does, however, have the ability to drain the greatness from a fake messiah. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews came close to calling the Sun a racist … or something:
The WaPo’s Eugene Robinson then tried to appear fair and balanced in his salvaging critique of Obama’s 2013 Berlin address in the best way possible known to the Obama sycophant media … He blamed Bush. Au contraire, Eugene, under Barack Obama America’s standing in the world, and with Europe, has dramatically changed far removed from our time under George W. Bush.
Well, Chrissy and Eugene, sans the TOTUS #FAIL, the content of Obama’s speech was nothing to put on an iPod and gift to any other world leader…
In stark contrast to that of his presidential predecessors, Barack Obama’s message on Wednesday was pure mush, another clichéd “citizens of the world” polemic with little substance. This was a speech big on platitudes and hopeless idealism, while containing much that was counter-productive for the world’s superpower. Ultimately it was little more than a laundry list of Obama’s favourite liberal pet causes, including cutting nuclear weapons, warning about climate change, putting an end to all wars, shutting Guantanamo, ending global poverty, and backing the European Project. It was a combination of staggering naiveté, the appeasement of America’s enemies and strategic adversaries, and the championing of more big government solutions.
There was little in this speech that advances US interests, or makes the world a safer place. Completely missing from Obama’s address was a call for the West to stand up to the rising threat of Islamist militancy, the defence of Christians facing huge levels of persecution and intimidation in the Middle East, strong condemnation of Iran and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and any criticism of growing authoritarianism in Russia. The president paid lip service to the NATO alliance, which has proved critical in preserving Europe’s security for over 60 years, but made no call for the alliance to be strengthened in the wake of waning support and investment in Europe.
President Obama’s words may well have pleased his German government hosts, content to see a United States whose ambitions as a military power have been significantly clipped since George W. Bush left office in 2009. But Barack Obama underscored again why he is no JFK or Ronald Reagan. In front of the Brandenburg Gate, Obama sounded more like the president of the European Commission than the leader of the free world. It is never a good sign when a US president parrots the language of a Brussels bureaucrat when he is supposed to be a champion of freedom. Obama’s distinctly unimpressive speech in Berlin was another dud from a floundering president whose leadership abroad is just as weak as it is at home.
Obama just can not get it done on this trip (recall how the media was vicious of Mitt Romney’s frank Euro-tour last year). Today he follows-up yesterday’s soggy speech by repeatedly calling British finance minister George Osborne “Jeffrey” at the G8 summit. But it’s okay. He is a democrat, and that’s different.
Three observations of the above photo of Obama. First, why the need for the heavy glass enclosure? Is there some threat we are not aware of? Second, the reflection in the security glass is of the Secret Service and press pool, not the gathered audience. Third, compared to JFK and Reagan … and even to his own 2008 Berlin performance… Obama’s choice of podium insignia yesterday is rather odd (he and his people have control/say over what is used/displayed). Yes, I know it’s the German eagle insignia, however, for somebody who just a month ago scoffed over fears of tyranny it was subliminally interesting. I mean, given all the planes that have traveled with Obama and his family on this trip, you mean there wasn’t room to load his own podium (insignia or not) to use?
UPDATE: MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd try to `splain and `scuse it away…
But not wanting to see – be seen as politicizing it too much there was an attempt to shrink the crowd size. Now the White House was all too comfortable with allowing that to happen because they feared they could never live up to the billing of what happened five years ago, that they could never recreate another 250,000 people showing up. Maybe they would have gotten 25, 30, 40,000 people.
Now, what I noticed in following this president for as long as I have – and you probably know exactly what I mean – is President Obama feeds off a crowd very well. The way this was all put together, you have this incredible setting, this incredible backdrop, and then you had that very distracting glass and you could just see that the President himself wasn’t feeding off of the crowd.
And I think look, part of it, it was hot…
Whatever disgrace, embarrassment, distress or actual harm Obama causes is NOT his fault. He did not elect or re-elect himself. He did not force the MSM to act as a (very) thinly veiled arm of the Democratic Party. He did not make black voters ignore MLK’s injunction against putting race over character. He did not make stupid voters stupid. He did not turn opportunists into something they weren’t already. He was simply affirmed/enabled BIG time, and of course he took advantage of it. It’s not his fault he didn’t deserve it, because it was given to him anyway. It’s not his fault he’s done a terrible job in a position he was not even remotely fit for, because that was inevitable. The fault lies with those who wanted him as POTUS and helped put him in the White House–twice. He can always say he had a mandate, however slim. Even now, with very serious scandals galore, his approval rating is close to 50%. So no, don’t look at Obama personally; look at what and who put him where he is. We have a very serious problem with our government in general, obviously including Congress, but the problem is not bad politicians; the problem is what and who puts and keeps them in office. Alas, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid misanthropy, unless one adopts the rationalization that roughly half the country is, in fact, mentally retarded and cannot help acting accordingly.
And even if Andrea Mitchell wouldn’t come out and say it, that glass was obviously racist.
asombra! I am your ditto head. Loved your first comment here.
I’ll add that the Euro/UK press have been brutal this trip with B-HO. (The UK press has been hitting him pretty hard the last couple years too).
However, he is exactly what Europe wanted. They thought he was the mirror image of themselves, the socialist second-coming.
They got that, without intelligent regard to what a ‘socialist USA’ would do to them and the rest of the world. What they have discovered in the last couple weeks is the old Iron Curtain Stasi. What they have is a two-bit actor playing the part of a POTUS in a very low budget movie. And it ain’t a comedy. The asteroid is heading for Earth and this guy is picking his nose and admiring it on his finger tip.
Europe is pretty far gone, but it had no part in Obama’s election. I’m still trying to come to grips with the unbelievable idiocy, shallowness and/or perversity of practically half of American voters. There are explanations for it, but there is no excuse. None. There was simply no rational basis for believing Obama was even passably fit to be POTUS, and there were plenty of red flags warning against putting him in that position, despite the media’s blatant and utterly disreputable partisanship. Again, there’s no excuse–except, as I already said, frank mental defectiveness.
Actually they did, when you count the Soros money, the “bundled” overseas donations that have not been investigated, and their fawning promoting of him in 2008, and rabid endorsing response to his 2009 apology tour over there.
One of the memes in 2008 was that Obama would make our allies/friends in Europe love us again after Bush ruined the alleged love affair for 8 years. For American voters to see the sea of people in 2008 worshiping him in Berlin fed into the half you are pointing out’s celebrity idiocy. It was an all fronts surge by the Euro media and the US media that knows that half hangs on everything they feed them. Look at this:
“Students Know More About Kim’s New Baby than NSA, Holder”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZlLR4WgIcw&feature=youtu.be
And therein lies the reason why we have what we have in Washington D.C.
Note to all these types of people: The “popular kids” didn’t give two flying leaps at the moon about you in high school. Guess what, the “most popular kids” in Hollywood and Washington DC don’t care about you today either … except both of them want your money, one way or another.
I take your point about European money contributing to Obama’s campaign, as well as his former popularity in Europe, but my point remains that in spite of everything, it was more than clear enough that he was NOT a good idea for the presidency of the US and was actually a dangerous one. The fact it was still that clear despite such a massive bias in his favor should have been even scarier. True, McCain was a weak candidate, but even a so-so choice is better than an irrational one, and politics IS about choosing the lesser evil. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the bottom line is that it was ultimately up to the voters, and WAY too many of them simply failed. Unfortunately, in a democracy, such failure is never just a personal, self-inflicted injury, but an injury to the entire country, and not only to its present but potentially to its future. It’s beyond clear that everyone is not fit to vote, just as everyone is not fit to drive, or sit on a jury, or manage other people’s money, or raise other people’s children. It seems rather obvious that those who can’t see straight and/or can’t manage to get their own shit together are hardly fit to influence the life of others.
As for the “popular kids” who want our money, at least the ones in Hollywood can definitely be denied and most certainly should be. They’ve gotten nothing out of me for quite some time, and I don’t feel even remotely deprived. They’re QUITE dispensable.