“America may not see it, but Obama’s a visionary”

thelocal.de ^ | 5 Nov 12 11:56 CET | (The Local/jcw/pmw)

[Olog-hai]

With most Germans hoping US President Barack Obama will be re-elected, the country is to see what happens on Tuesday. In a special-edition Zeitgeist, The Local asked what Berliners thought. …

Anja, 36, Berlin

“I am hoping that Obama will win. For me, it’s about his character. I see him more as a visionary, even though the Americans don’t understand this or try to stand in his way. But I think he’s more visionary for the future.” …

Obama speaks to the basic German attitude of social responsibility within a capitalist market—and crucially in the 2008 election, he was not George W. Bush, who was wildly unpopular in Germany by the end of his second presidency. …

[Bernard Marx]

Yes, Obama’s a “visionary” in the same sense as Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Hugo Chavez, Mao, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and a number of other despots who come to mind.

[RitchieAprile]

‘For me, it’s about his character.’

what character would that be, Anja?

[GeronL]

I am wondering what the Germans add to their water

[alth3655]

Who give’s a rats ass what a socialist European wants in our election? We don't get involved in their democratic process, they shouldn't get involved in ours. They should be more worried about the rest of the EU siphoning the value of their currency out because of fiscal irresponsibility!

[GeronL]

What vision is that??

Every American broke with a part time job or on welfare?

[Advil000]

You might, MIGHT be able to make that argument. After all, they are socialist and we are not. So Obama would seem more visionary to THEM.

However, the visionary argument falls apart when you look at the 6 trillion in debt Obozo has added. There is no vision there... that is a road to destruction.

I seriously doubt any Germans pay attention to our debt or how much our social policies cost. They have their own mega debt crisis in Europe right now.

[Moonman62]

They said the same about Carter. We just needed to wait a century or two for any positive effect.

[noinfringers2]

For a number of years after my service in WWII I had much empathy with the German people. I even liked having to study the German language to get my engineering degree. I had closer feelings with German people when we supported our granddaughter’s year long time in Germany as an exchange student. Not so much feeling today as I see Germans not understanding our exceptional government and forgetting the contributions the USA made to keep the Germans from Russian domination. We need to understand and accept that Germans believe now as in the past that only they have the wisdom of governance. I sincerely hope my attitude will be changed as I recall many things in the German traditions that I enjoy. However, I will also remember the Germany of WWII.

[RatRipper]

In my first career as a bank examiner who reviewed lots and lots of loans for credit quality, I realized that people are broke on different levels. There were bankrupt people that had far more assets than I will ever have.

With age and observation, I have similarly realized that people are morons on different levels: There are ignorant morons and there are educated morons. This moron is utterly unqualified to lecture me on Obama being a visionary.

What category of moron this person qualifies under, I do not know. I have followed Obama since well before his election in 2008. One thing is abundantly clear to me: he is DEFINITELY NOT a visionary. He is simply a smart a$$ ideologically trained street thug trying to take my hard-earned money and subjugate me under his absolute authority. Barbarian simpletons did the exact same thing with with spears, swords and clubs!!! Now Obama relies on blatant lies, street thugs intimidating people at voter precincts and a army of union heavies to scare people.

Visionary???? Bite my a$$ you moron!!!

[Jim from C-Town]

Try hundreds of millions of deaths!

[Wordkraft]

“America may not see it, but Obama’s a visionary”

Some people have vision. Others just see things.

[x]

She's still stuck in 2008 and thinking Obama is a visionary with character. I think she means that she thinks of herself as a visionary (with character) for supporting him. For Anja (and a lot of other people) Obama's a screen she can project her own feelings onto, a blank slate she can fill with her own musings.

Europe and the US are different. Diversity or exceptionalism cuts both ways. We agree to disagree on Obama and other topics.

[Berlin_Freeper]

In the UK, Obama came out with a huge 85 percent of the vote.

[Olog-hai]

They would not vote for him as Kanzler of their own country, though.

I have to laugh at this comment from a man from Kassel called Peter, age 65:

“If I were American, I would rather vote for Obama rather than for this millionaire. I don’t know if millionaires make the greatest politicians, but there are a lot of them.”

I guess the prolefeed that Peter subscribes to failed to mention that Obama is himself a millionaire?

[CharlesMartelsGhost]

This coming from the same people who brought us Hitler, the Frankfurt School, allowed large Turkish/Islamic immigration into their country, think climate change is real and chased real visionarties, like Einstein, out of their country.

A grain of salt has more value than their op-ed dribble. .

[Timocrat]

We have suffered enough from crazy Kraut visonaries. By that I mean Bismarck, Nietzsche, Freud, ALL of their theologians save von Hildebrand and RAtzinger

You forgot the craziest "visionary" of them all Karl Marx. Also disagree about their theologians See Bonhoffer, Dietrich.

[Dr. Sivana]

You’re right about forgetting Marx ... may as well throw Hegel and Engels in there. Regarding Bonhoffer, I only know about his argument against “cheap grace”. As a Catholic, I have only a passing familiarity with him, though I know he stood up to the Nazis, which is always worth doing. I also understand the German Jew Husserl philosopher isn’t all that bad, if you are into that phenomenology thing (I’m not).