German newsmagazine Der Spiegel notes that US President Barack Obama shelved apparent plans to attend the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, of which Toby Harnden at the Daily Telegraph said:
Perhaps Obama felt that celebrating the role of the United States in bringing down the wall would be a bit triumphalist and not quite in keeping with his wish to present America as a declining world power anxious to apologise for sundry historic misdeeds.
Hilary Clinton stood in his place, alongside Angela Merkel, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Kofi Annan, Gordon Brown and Dmitri Medvedev.
Apparently the leader of the world's largest economy, strongest military power and free world throughout the Cold War didn't think it mattered enough.
Harnden notes Obama IS travelling to Norway to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course Obama has been to Berlin before. He did a campaign speech there before he was elected, which was seen as rather unusual given he was standing for election as President of the United States, not Germany, Europe or the world. Der Spiegel sarcastically referred to that speech as "People of the World - Look at Me". Noting that foreign press (as in non-American) were explicitly excluded from the press conference following that effort.
So on that note, and to follow Harnden's efforts, how about some words from some US Presidents who really did have an idea freedom...
(and though he called himself a doughnut accidentally) JFK was prescient and proud of what the US was standing for, back then.
Perhaps Obama felt that celebrating the role of the United States in bringing down the wall would be a bit triumphalist and not quite in keeping with his wish to present America as a declining world power anxious to apologise for sundry historic misdeeds.
Hilary Clinton stood in his place, alongside Angela Merkel, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa, Kofi Annan, Gordon Brown and Dmitri Medvedev.
Apparently the leader of the world's largest economy, strongest military power and free world throughout the Cold War didn't think it mattered enough.
Harnden notes Obama IS travelling to Norway to pick up the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course Obama has been to Berlin before. He did a campaign speech there before he was elected, which was seen as rather unusual given he was standing for election as President of the United States, not Germany, Europe or the world. Der Spiegel sarcastically referred to that speech as "People of the World - Look at Me". Noting that foreign press (as in non-American) were explicitly excluded from the press conference following that effort.
So on that note, and to follow Harnden's efforts, how about some words from some US Presidents who really did have an idea freedom...
(and though he called himself a doughnut accidentally) JFK was prescient and proud of what the US was standing for, back then.
2 comments:
Obama quite surprised me here, I don't understand his attitude. And yeah, Kennedy's speech as pretty good indeed. Except calling himself a jelly doughnut, as you mentioned already. Still, the effort is what matters.
Lorne
The jelly doughnut thing is a complete myth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_berliner#Jelly_doughnut_urban_legend
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