Posted on 11/09/2009 9:23:16 AM PST by Schnucki
Barack Obama was quick off the mark last year in heading for Berlin during his election campaign, when he was cheered by a crowd of 200,000 adoring Germans. Yet as president of the United States he has decided to stay away from Berlin as the city commemorates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In contrast, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have both made the trip to Germany, while Obama has decided to send his Secretary of State.
It is shameful when the US president can’t even be bothered to show up at a ceremony marking one of the most momentous events of modern times. As Rich Lowry wrote in his column for National Review, “Obama’s failure to go to Berlin is the most telling nonevent of his presidency.” Newt Gingrich put it well when he described Obama’s foolhardy decision as “a tragedy”. Writing in The Washington Examiner, Gingrich declared:
“To commemorate, after all, is to remember. And Americans need to remember, not just that the Wall fell, but why it fell. We need to remember that the Berlin Wall was the symbol of more than just the Cold War, more than just the division of Europe. It was the symbol of an evil ideology that denied human dignity, denied truth, and respected only power. When the Wall fell, truth and human dignity, in a rare moment in the 20th century, triumphed over power. But that victory is not permanent.”
In my view, Obama’s absence from Berlin today can be explained by four key factors:
1/ Obama is uncomfortable with the idea of American greatness
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the direct result of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher’s determination to confront and defeat Soviet communism. Obama is distinctly uncomfortable
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
Recently, a woman called Rush with her reason. She said, O was denied speaking before the Brandenburg Gate in the past, as it was reserved for those who had accomplished something — and he hadn’t done so at that point. So — he is paying them back by not gracing them with his “presence”.
According to Zero, the wrong side one!
Barry hates it when Communists/Socialists lose.
5th reason - He couldn’t think of anything he could apologize for (and not get stoned by the crowd)!
Remember “gravitas”?
No regard for Europe, particularly Western Europe. Except
of course, when his wife wants to shop.
If he stepped onto that hallowed ground of freedom, he’d immediately burst into flame?
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