Full Text Of Obama's Berlin Speech
It's after the jump. Dig in. Video and more soon.
Late Update: Here's the vid...
Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.
That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.
Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.
On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.
This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.
The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.
And that's when the airlift began - when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.
The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.
But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"
People of the world - look at Berlin!
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.
Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security.
Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.
People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.
Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope - walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers - dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.
The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.
As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.
In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.
In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth - that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.
Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.
That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.
We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.
So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.
That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations - and all nations - must summon that spirit anew.
This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.
This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.
This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.
This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century - in this city of all cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.
This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all.
This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.
And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.
Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?
Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?
People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.
These are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. These aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of these aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of these aspirations that all free people - everywhere - became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of these aspirations that a new generation - our generation - must make our mark on the world.
People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. With an eye toward the future, with resolve in our hearts, let us remember this history, and answer our destiny, and remake the world once again.















Easy home run so far - not sure what all the "risk" was.
Obama knows what he's doing.
http://strategy08.wordpress.com
July 24, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, when even Repub apologist, David Broder, wonders aloud why and how the media was cautioning about the "risks" involved with the Obama world tour, you know it's a grand slam by Obama.
July 24, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you sure?
Have you dug into the speech a little bit?
He flailed, made mistakes, fumbled, and proved that even the teleprompter couldn't help him.
I'm tired of politicians telling me they know better.
July 24, 2008 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't start crying til he started on No Nukes.
God I love this man!
July 24, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stop your crying, and start your thinking.
Emotion does not allow clear headed thinking, as you have so aptly proven.
NO single politician can make weapons go away.
It doesn't work like that.
You have to give a whole regime a reason to get rid of their nukes the way Reagan out-spent the Russians for instance.
Believing a politician that promises anything, is one thing - you should know better.
Supporting a politician making promises that can't possibly be kept requires intellectual correction.
Is it too much to ask, to look at this guy as a possibly flawed probably self-centered politician that wants to be put into power - because it's fun to be in power!
Of course he'll promise the world. Look what he promised the far Left in the US, and look how he completely went back on his promise, as soon as he had a chance. Political expediency. OF COURSE!
But he sure made fools out of his left wing base. Poor little rubes.
July 24, 2008 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
He has not omitted one damn thing from this speech - this speech contains all my hopes.
All my hopes-
This is where he never ever disappoints me and to me the world is more important than just America is.
July 24, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
How does one say poetically and eloquently, "Amen"? You have expressed my sentiments exactly in yout 2 comments...
July 24, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow.
July 24, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stirring, smart, and (properly) safe! Very impressive, even in the somewhat subdued atmosphere of an outdoor speech.
July 24, 2008 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jeez - he dived right into that crowd while the SS was trying to pull him back.
I wish I didn't worry so much about Obama.
July 24, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given the speech's location, you might want to write out "Secret Service."
July 24, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
At firs I thought 'the wha . . . 'oh.
:-P
July 24, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
O - how clueless am I? I totally missed it and lord -it should have been obvious to me.
I am so corrected cause you are so right! LOL
July 24, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama has donw in seven minutes what George Bush squandered for sever years- reminded Europe we're one.
July 24, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
This was a message to the world.
July 24, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
me too, on both counts
July 24, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's done it again. Flawless.
I can't wait for McCain answer:
The surge, the surge, the surge...
July 24, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
A very, very good speech. Brilliant, as usual.
July 24, 2008 1:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
The invocation of the Berlin airlift at the end worked really well.
"People of Berlin, and people of the world . . . "
Managed to be about Berlin, about America, and about the aspirations of liberal internationalism -- all at once, and powerfully.
Better than I expected. And my expectations were unreasonably high.
July 24, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
My Mom said that when she saw JFK speak at an event it was like he was in color and everyone else was in black and white.
After watching this speech, I understand how she felt.
July 24, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a great analogy!
July 24, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
CNN anchor just said that Kenya is Obama's "home country". The ignorance of cable news talking heads is beyond the pale.
July 24, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just started to write that. CNN has been awful before and after this speech. Just horrible in their anchor and their analyst. I turned it off.
July 24, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
My one anxiety. The chanting of "Obama" from the audience. I kinda wish they wouldn't. But what the hey -- let Michelle Malkin accuse us of being fascists. I'm not inclined to take her too seriously on the topic. ;-)
July 24, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
People have chanted for McCain at various events.
July 24, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but they weren't German. ;-) Don't shoot me, I'm philo-Deutsch. I'm not making a substantive point, strictly a PR point.
July 24, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's really impressive is that he delivered a message to Europeans, Americans, and the world in one unified speech. He didn't just say what the crowd wanted to hear--he said Germany needs to send troops to Afghanistan! That's speaking with moral authority, with a vision for the future, not just playing with the politics of the moment. That's (one reason) why McCain can't touch him. Inspiring.
July 24, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eight long years of darkness about to be lifted. We absolutely must elect Obama as president. Getting to hear 8 years of his speeches will be one of our rewards.
July 24, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hoppy, I kind of laughed during the speech, when Obama was looking left and right, speaking flawlessly, and wondered at what point McCain would have passed out from tele-prompter overload.
July 24, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
My friends,
I am once again very disappointed that Senator Obama, while speaking in Berlin today, again failed to acknowledge that it was My Surge plan which made the Berlin Air Lift of 1948 possible.
Did I mention that my Surge also removes warts, and bird shit from car paint?
Sincerly,
Senator Janus McCain
July 24, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
All Hail the Surge!
July 24, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
my surge is bigger than your surge! ;}
July 24, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
whew..thanks for a hearty lugh..liam
July 24, 2008 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that's funny!
July 24, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rats. That was in reply to, oh, never mind.
July 24, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was speaking with a friend of mine in France over IM while we watched the speech together, and he told me he loved every bit of it. He especially liked the part about taking a strong stance to reduce nuclear weapons.
July 24, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
My French friend. Thought I'd clarify, since it could have been an American who's in France...
July 24, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ditto, nuclear weapons big hit even with me!
July 24, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's when I started crying.
He sure listens well - that speech really was tailored for the European audience - that was not a campaign speech. He went through what I have read most often to be Europeans' biggest problems with us and their biggest issues. He and his staff really listen to people - that's why he is able to reach people -= he actually listens.
He sure cannot be accused of making a campaign speech.
July 24, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely Tena. At no point I felt he was orchestrating a campaign speech. He seemed like a global leader on a mission to unite the Europeans under one cause. Almost, Mandela or Gore like, he has been awarded authority by the people of the world to speak on their behalf and speak to them as well.
In my mind, through this speech, he had transcended speculation and offered a potential for America to send a formidable yet friendly voice onto the world stage- a voice that has magnetism to change public opinion in these countries toward America and it's foriegn policy.
July 24, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going to start crying again. I really despaired of having a real leader emerge from this darkness and take us where we needed to go. I had no idea where that kind of person was going to come from - I couldn't see one any where and I was prepared, as well as I could be, for the continued decline of this country. I really expected one witless clown after another as we slipped into the twilight of our greatness. I had plans made - not that I have to change them, since they are very simple and involve a lot of sitting on the portal and sparking em up.
LOL
July 24, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
If any of you dare, take a swim over to the sludge that is the National Review's The Corner blog. It is entertaining. I especially love how they mock him for repeating "this is the moment." Is it me, or has the right collectively lost its ability to think and comment without irrationality?
July 24, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a mensch.
July 24, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice speech and delivery by Obama.
My favorite moment though was not substantive. After Barack said "my father grew up herding goats in Kenya," someone in the crowd gave out a loud Muslim trill/shriek "ulooloolooloolooloo" and Barack laughed.
July 24, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I loved that moment!
July 24, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Me too. That was awesome! haha
July 24, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would note that the call your referring to is known as an ululation and it ain't necessarily "muslim." Not that that matters... :)
July 24, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe. Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?
I'm glad he brought attention to these issues.
July 24, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe. Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?
I'm glad he brought attention to these issues.
July 24, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah I swooned right about there -
;)
July 24, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
So am I. I think it's going to resonate with a large number of people.
July 24, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I couldn't watch the speech. How did the crowd react?
July 24, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Listened intently, cheered, at times cheered very loudly, and all were dying to shake his hand afterwards.
Actually, they seemed to take to heart his words. That is just what struck me when they shot to faces in the crowd.
July 24, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks!
July 24, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and lots of "we love you Obama" that I heard.
July 24, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh, they liked it! A little more restrained than US audiences, but I think that's a very *good* thing. Every time they started chanting O-ba-ma and waving their arms in the air the PR guy in my head started getting nervous. "Come on guys, you know the drill . . . you're a German crowd . . . on American tv . . . please, please, please, keep your arms *down*!"
July 24, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I understand how you feel about the chanting, because I felt that, too. Do you think it was mitigated, though, with all of the American flags?
That's what's in my head.
But my heart says, "Wow, now THAT's what a president should look and sound like!" We would actually be respected, again. Do you know how much progress we can make on the things that actually matter with his approach?
Let's hope that we can get enough of our citizens to see what an opportunity this is and vote accordingly. The work has yet to begin!!
July 24, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
They really loved him - there were ululations from a section of the crowd. After the speech he dived right into the crowd and was shaking hands. I saw one girl who looked very much like she was almost hysterical. LOL And one man who looked African was hysterical for real - he was trying very hard to reach him. That's when they pulled him back and they left.
July 24, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans - sJust ave your campaign money for 2010 or 2012. McCain has no chance.
July 24, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
You'll hear no complaints from me about the lovely northern evening summer sunlight. The colors seemed painted by Monet.
July 24, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you haven't seen light until you've seen the light in Northern New Mexico; I'm sorry. The light is why Taos is the oldest art colony in the country and it's also why New Mexico is called the land of enchantment.
Just to get obnoxious about it. ;P
July 24, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Been there, you are absolutely correct :)
July 24, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I'm an American citizen and global citizen." I love hearing that.
"The walls between Christian and Muslim and Jews cannot stand."
It's been a long, long time since the American flag has waved on foreign soil with such joy and excitement. And without being put to flames.
Awesome.
July 24, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. The cosmopolitan tone of the speech was perfect. Linking American ideals to human rights and global cooperation. He even put 9/11 in a global perspective: "The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil." And the crowd really responded to the "we're all in this together" theme.
July 24, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damn...well put
July 24, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great, great speech. A couple of things stood out for me:
- The use of the word "yearning". Probably lost on the German audience, but it resonates here. Obama has a way of doing that- using single words that are so powerful in context.
- Recognizing - and accepting- our differences while at the same time recognizing our similarities.
- Actually calling the genocide in Darfur a genocide. The fact that it has been ignored for as long as it has is despicable. Watching politicians argue about why it should be called a "situation" instead of a "genocide" for political reasons is sickening.
July 24, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
too true. Letterman will have to cancel his "Great moments in presidential speeches" spoof.
July 24, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain on CNN:
The surge, the surge, the surge...
At least, he didn't let me don't.
July 24, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
One word:
Themanrocks!!!
Oh, we live in exciting times.
July 24, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and one number 47%...very exciting times!
July 24, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
As impressive as Kerry's 17 point lead in July 2004.
July 24, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another number 14%.
But yes, many of us are livin in times, we'll recount when we turn as old as "youknowwho."
July 24, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
whoops...new poll out 45%...I'm swooning and crying now too....you guys were right.
July 24, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get lost.
July 24, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I apologize...I guess that was a little mean...I couldn't take it though...y'all were killing me.
July 24, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess it's a little unfair that TPM isn't covering McCain's stirring appearnace at Ohio's finest sausage house.
July 24, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude, you haven't lived till you've tried Schmidt's "Sauerkraut-Bratwurst Balls"...seriously.
July 24, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
haha.
I go from hating you to loving you every other post.
July 24, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, Sgt.! Things must be bad for you and your friend Senatory McCain. Folks don't typically resort to chanting "scoreboard" in response to a good development for the other side when they are losing!
July 24, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude, I'm a Golden State Warriors fan, we cheer at anything that takes our mind off of the score board.
July 24, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another Bay denizen - Raider and 'Niner fan. I can so relate to your comment.
July 24, 2008 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
thank you, SFC, decent of you to say. i would point out to others that this is a sign not of a troll but of a mensch with whom many of us usually disagree.
July 24, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
the last word is down, not don't. typo. my bad.
July 24, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny post below taken from Huffington blogger re: speech, LOL.
"I have tinglings in BOTH my legs!"
July 24, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope."
Thank you Mr. Obama. I have despaired waiting to hear someone- anyone- say something like this.
July 24, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I went to university in Europe. I arrived on September 12, 2001 and watched as the love and solidarity Europeans felt toward the US was replaced by mistrust and anger. Watching thousands of cheering Germans wave the American Flag and cheering the thought of meeting the new century by America's side left me crying in my cubicle. God Bless you, Barack Obama, for giving me this moment.
July 24, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama's best quality is his lack of fear. There were countless reasons not to risk giving a big, worldly speech in Berlin, Germany, but he went ahead and gave a great one anyway. America has no problem embracing a Democrat, as long as he's not a weenie or a sleazebag. Obama, fortunately, continues to prove that he is neither.
Now it's time for him to return home for the rest of the year and spend most of his time in the 20 or so contested states. He's already locked up the votes of those voters who want to improve America's standing in the world. So until November, it's the economy, stupid.
July 24, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only read the speech, haven't heard it yet.
<nitpick>
A couple of nitpicks first
That should drive the wingnuts batshit (hmm, maybe that's not really a nitpick)
When I read it, it looked a little odd. The first I thing I thought was, so if your father needed the freedom and opportunity promised by the West, why'd he go back to Kenya? Perhaps this could have been fleshed out a little more. Anyway, just a nitpick.
</nitpick>
That being say, I appreciate a foreign policy that's not based on one's middle finger.
I think that was my favorite part of the speech.
July 24, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
"That being say, I appreciate a foreign policy that's not based on one's middle finger."
So then you oppose Obama's plan to give the people of Iraq the finger and walk away...?
July 24, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hold up your middle finger as you look in a mirror, that is how we feel about you :)
July 24, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
So then, you oppose McCain's plan to give the Iraqi people the middle finger and stay after they have told us to leave? Excellent.
July 24, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't recall them telling us to leave yet, I know they've discussed future plans to draw down troop numbers. The only definative requests were from the tribal leaders that hung their asses out and started fighting the Al-Queada forces. They asked us to not leave too soon.
July 24, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had something written out, but then I saw this... sums it up pretty well.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/vote_vets_ad_mccain_should_kno.php
That the finger I'm talking about.
July 24, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean "walk away" with the blessing and support of their President?
July 24, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK. It's time....
You sir are a fuck'n pussy and can lick the shit of my boot once I pull it from your balling ass.
July 24, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
...that is, of course, if there is anything left of you after Amelie gets done with ya.
July 24, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush One, and Bush Two gave the people of Iraq the middle finger. It was your beloved Chicken Hawk Neo-Cons that coddled Saddam, gave him the Chemical and Biological starter kits, and stayed quite when he gassed the Kurds. Surely you must recall that.
Then for toppers; Bush One urged the Shiites to rebel, and when they did, Bush One gave Saddam the green light to slaughter them. Surely you must recall that.
Bush two was the one who invaded without a post invasion plan. Surely you must recall that.
Cheney said that there was no need for such a plan, since we would be greeted with flowers and sweets. Sad to say; Haliburton must have had the delivery contract on those flowers and sweets, because they were never delivered, but we have paid a huge price for them. Surely you must recall that.
Your Republican Party is a Middle Finger, and you love to suck it.
July 24, 2008 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Iraq is a soveriegn country and has been since June 28, 2004. Their government is now calling for us to withdraw our troops.
July 24, 2008 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can you see all the Iraqis giving your guy the one-finger salute (which your "friend" will take it as a real one given his stupidity)?
July 24, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great speech, hitting precisely the right note.
You can see what Obama wrote in Berlin's official guestbook (along with his lovely signature) right here:
http://www.morgenpost.de/berlin/article716476/Barack_Obamas_Tag_in_Berlin.html?slideshowpage=55
(Lots of other photos to click through as well)
July 24, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Der Spiegel is putting the crowd size at 200,000.
July 24, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is when I felt what Obama was trying to convey.
When I was a child, I remember seeing the Berlin Airlift on the newsreels in the movie theaters, hearing about it on the radio. I was too young to read newspapers. The pictures of plane after plane taking off and flying, their drone, the stentorian voice above saying how the Allies were going to try to feed a city of millions, with airplanes only. I still recall that vividly, more so when listening to Obama's words.
I could never understand then how people could be so mean -- mean is how I thought at my age -- to keep others from eating. It made no sense then, but it makes sense now. We have strong ties to Britain, whom we rescued, and to France whom we liberated, and I see also to Germany.
Obama at this point was conveying to the Germans and to the Americans how much we have needed and will need each other. Wonderful speech, full of nostalgia -- nostos algos, the pain of returning home to the past.
July 24, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, this speech encapsulates the trip perfectly. His statesman persona is solidified and it makes mccain and the current president look thoroughly underwhelming. he's more than held his on the issues and has given a sneak preview to what a difference his presence would make as president again making the current one seem very underwhelming and out of his depth. there should be a strong bump in the next round of poll numbers. I think this sort of thing will sway a lot of true independents and swing voters because they'll remember what it was like for America to be looked upon positively and think 'well, that's certainly better than what we've got now!'.
or so i hope...
July 24, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very presidential.
"President Obama"
Get used to that.
July 24, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just got done reading it. Fabulous!!! I wish I could hear it. I'd probably start crying myself.
I so wish the election was a done deal and Obama was already working on this vision.
There is one sobering fact left in my mind about Obama. He isn't there yet.
Only citizens of the US get to vote and that, only that, causes my stomach to turn and skin crawl after listening to him. The entire hopes and dreams of a positive freedom filled future of a whole planet rests in the hands of the population of the least educated and most bigoted democratic country of all.
July 24, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am speechless...
July 24, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Beautiful speech! The man is brilliant. I love this guy. My legs are tingling. Wonder how the German restaurant lunch worked out for sourpuss.
July 24, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't understand anything he says even when his mouth isn't stuffed with wurst.
July 24, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Slightly off-topic, but this column almost sounds positive considering the source...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/opinion/23dowd.html?em&ex=1217044800&en=21ef89a62e1405e7&ei=5087%0A
July 24, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I heard a clip at lunch on NPR and thought he sounded a little tired and pulled up the text when I got back to my office. As I read, I was thinking he was having to be so careful to navigate the hazards his rather unique status presented at that time and place that it seemed like it was cramping his style a bit, like maybe a few too many people had had a bit too much input into the speech for him to hit the rhetorical heights his very best ones have hit. And then in the middle of that jaundiced critical analysis, I realized he'd gotten me all choked up again, dammit.
Maybe its just because he was suddenly speaking to one of the defining moments of my generation:
I remember that year so well. I was a second-year law student and therefore too busy to do more than schedule in a few minutes a day to marvel at the way the world I'd known and assumed was fixed into place forever turned itself inside out. Seemingly intractable standoffs and entrenched injustices just melted away, one after another. The summer before, the Chinese showed the other tyrannies what they had to be prepared to do to maintain themselves--and, one after another, over the course of the next two years, they flinched.
The 1989-90 period changed the world in ways that today's twenty and thirty somethings cannot really understand. Political science and history majors today study a world without a Soviet Union and that thought still blows my mind. And yet although the change was profound, it was so much quieter and less traumatic than the gory wound in history that was 1968-69, that the boomers barely noticed it.
So maybe that's all it was--he was commmunicating a generational truth that I connected with.
But, then again, maybe the truth is that between the emotional exhaustion wrought by our passionate primaries and the FISA furor, I'd come to take what has always drawn me to him for granted over these last few months and now I'd been reminded.
The intelligence, the strategic and moral vision that comes from a real, and profound, understanding of history, the chance to recover at least some of the international goodwill and national sense of purpose that George W. Bush and his legion of knuckle-dragging anti-intellectual fratboys squandered like trust fund babies on a Vegas binge. All of that is such an integral part of Obama, and of the people around him, that I'd just begun taking it for granted and now I wasn't. I hope I'm not the only one.
July 24, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some parts were very powerfully. The section on globalization was especially compelling: Like it or not, our destinies are intertwined in remarkable and unprecedented ways. The problems we face together are huge.
It's not his oratory which is persuasive, it is the intelligence of the content.
July 24, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's representing us proudly over there. Two thumbs up.
July 24, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, his speech starts from a statement of solidarity against the former Soviet Union under the guise of freedom (he forgot to mention the firebombing of Dresden). Then it proposes to expand NATO's intervention in Afghanistan, with the implicit ultimate goal of turning NATO into military force for western imperial countries to 'intervene' worldwide. Then it finishes with many paragraphs of platitudes that in one version or another could come out of most any politician's mouth. And for all this really mediocre political oratory, commentors here are bowled over in gush. It speaks to the political backwardness of the American population, most notably its liberals, that "hope" - not even belief or confidence - is the basis for supporting a candidate.
July 24, 2008 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Negative analysis can't get any more cynically streched than your post above.
Just as humorists struggle writing jokes about Obama, your analysis proves your task to be no easier than than theirs.
July 24, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Very interesting "can we all just be a happy single-minded Western civilization again pro- NATO" stuff:
It's no coincidence, I think, that he has praised Bush I foreign policy more than once in interviews in the last few weeks.
July 24, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is my first time visiting this place, I am dizzy from reading the comments.
I am impressed most by the virtual gushing over the Obama speech today.
I thought there would be intelligent discussion here regarding some flaws, and contradictions in the speech. There were also a number of cliche's and a repeated use of the same phrase 16 times.
If there was supposed to be intelligence revealed, it was anything but.
However, if this is primarily an Obama Fan Site, I won't bother returning.
How disappointing, that with all the raised hopes/hype, this guy is a run-of-the-mill politician, all the standard hubris, complete with blind followers.
But what did I expect?
"Citizen of the world" indeed!
I hope this speech never disappears so that MAYBE some of the followers, will take a good long look at what it really says, and what their real motivations for supporting Obama are.
Cheers!
July 24, 2008 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I had to leave for work just as Obama was about to give his speech. I was going to go into a patients room and sneak peeks, but never got the chance til KO's show came on. I am biracial like Obama and I just finished listening/ viewing his big day in Berlin! I am about to cry!!!!!!! Who would have thought that a black man would attract over 200,000 people to hear him speak in a former Communist city! I was not sure if I would get to see a Black man become President, but I will!!! All the struggles, injustices, tears, and humiliation that Blacks have endeared in this country has led to this historic and monmumental occasion!
Lincoln, MLK, The Kennedy Bros, Fredrick Douglas, Rosa Parks, Cyprus Atticks, John Brown, Chaney, Schwerner, Goodman, Booker T, Sojourner, Coretta, Jesse Owens, etc......... must be looking down and crying tears of joy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These people lived and died for this day!!!!!!!!!!
On the other hand: Washington, Adams, Franklin, Bull Connor, Buchanan, Johnson, Jackson, Monroe, Madison, Hoover, etc...........must all be turning in their graves!! This was NOT suppose to happen! A black man was a nothing. he was not expected to achieve great heights! Slavery, Jim Crow, segregation was designed to keep the Black man down! look WHAT HAS ARISEN!!!!
The Repubs must be seeing RED!!! McCain is doo-doo! he does not inspire, give hope, or excite the imagination! He can not achieve a crowd like this!! A crowd with both B & W in attendance, with out stretched arms, clamoring to touch him!!!!
Repubs, be scared, be very scare!!!!!! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo PROUD OF YOU BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
REACH FOR THE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 25, 2008 12:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
@ UberMenza
Did you actually read the text of the speech?
"In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny."
He's not promising anything. He's not even promising America will do anything. He's asking everyone to put aside their differences and unite to deal with complex global issues in a complex adult fashion.
It must be tough for you %20 Bush supporters to watch someone who can actually speak coherently in full sentences? Is that why all you can do is nitpick at his umms and errs?
July 25, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
A truely insane speech.
John Lennon - in his worst "Imagine" days in New York City couldn't have produced such nonsense.
Barack - THE ONE speaks to us and says:
That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down."
Translation for us working stiffs - Barack Obama wants to allow 800 million Third World Muslims to up and move from Indonesia, Algeria, Somalia into Europe, UK, Australia, USA, Canada.
We in the West are supposed to welcome this "Diversity" - I want to puke.
#*$&@# Barack Hussein Obama! *@$#*$# his worthless HARVARD, Politically Correct body and soul!
How does the West produce such idiot creatures?
America needs a draft to force such idiot Ivy League miseducated morons to go through army basic training and cure this PC, globalist mental illness in American political leaders.
Wow!
Really bad speech Barack ( a neighbor of mine in Hyde Park Chicago - figures)
August 16, 2008 3:34 AM | Reply | Permalink