When he He returns to the USA He'll be walking across the Atlantic .. just you wait and see. ;)
Posted on 07/25/2008 9:56:22 AM PDT by Daffynition
"Obama Addresses 200,000 in Berlin" -- thus ran the AP headline the day after Barack Obama's much-hyped speech in front of Berlin's Siegessäule or "Victory Column." This 200,000 figure has quickly become the standard estimate of the crowd for Obama's speech in both the American and the German media: so standard indeed that it is for the most part not even treated as an estimate.
The estimates given by German public television ZDF actually during the event, however, were as many as 10 times lower. ZDF began its special "Obama in Berlin" coverage [German video] at 6:45 p.m. Central European Time: only 15 minutes before the candidate's speech was scheduled to start. At the time, ZDF reporter Susanne Gelhard was out and about on the so-called "Fan Mile" between the Victory Column and the Brandenburg Gate. "The expectations were highly varied," she said in her live report, "from a few thousand up to a million. Those were the estimates. But, now, several tens of thousands have turned out." Barely five minutes before the speech was supposed to start, ZDF Berlin studio chief Peter Frey added, "We do estimate that 20,000 [literally, "a couple of ten thousand"] people have turned out." Frey's tone, like that of Gelhard, reflected the gap between the relatively modest number cited and the lofty predications that had preceded the event. Moreover, while the ZDF live images showed that the "Fan Mile" was indeed populated from one end to the other, they also appeared to reveal patches of thinness and pedestrian traffic flowing easily on the half of the boulevard closer to the Brandenburg Gate (i.e. furthest from the "Victory Column").
And then: the candidate did not appear at the appointed time. Could his handlers have been disappointed by the turnout? Did they hope to buy time for more spectators to arrive? At this point, ZDF interrupted its special coverage and broke for the nightly news. When the coverage resumed some fifteen minutes later, ZDF host Claus Kleber promptly declared that there were "one hundred thousand" people on the Fan Mile. He then repeated the claim twice more in rapid succession -- now, more precisely, "over one hundred thousand people" -- as if repetition could somehow cover up the glaring discrepancy between this number and the number cited by his colleague Frey only 20 minutes earlier.
Isn’t it really a question of whether they were there for “the one” or for a rock concert that apparently took place at the same time.
Another miracle!
Obama turned 20,000 fans into 200,000 fans! And there were enough leftovers to fill twelve baskets!
LOL!!!!!
Either way, the difference is just a bunch of zeros- ie, people who have zero votes in the US.
But all the kegs were empty ...
..and 20,000 basket cases.
Regardless of the actual number the crowd was there for a 2-band free benefit rock concert. Obama was a added to the line up of special celebrity speakers. If you watched the news last night, you would have thought 200,000 adoring fans show up to touch the robes of the Messiah
He just lies.
Is that 200,000 in English, or metric units?
20,000 people with 19,000 of them part of the US media.
Obviously that type of information is not important enough to get reported.
Twelve... uh, ONE HUNDRED TWENTY baskets! There were One Hundred Twenty baskets of scraps! Just ask Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. That is if they will get up off their bloody and scarred knees long enough to drop the Chapstick and actually consider returning to reality.
I hope the MSN are feeling like a bunch of useful idiots about now. I think this is whole EU campaign trip is going to have a big backlash.
I think what Obama is going to find out is that this trip came at a time to do him no good, and potentially only harm. Only political junkies are paying attention, and anyone who catches things here and there are just as likely to get a bad impression than a good one over this stuff.
I just hope McCain realizes the “ground game” is his key this time around.
When he He returns to the USA He'll be walking across the Atlantic .. just you wait and see. ;)
200?
That would just be his media supporters and his “peeps”.
I was wondering actually about the applause. If there were 200,000 people present in front of Obama, the sound from the applause should have been blaring, it should have covered all other surrounding noises even Obama’s voice. The applause in the sound bites do not sound resonating, it sounds like a couple of thousand people actually.
Any thoughts?
You’d think the Germans would have a better sense of history that letting Obama hold a rally like one of Hitler’s! This foreign campaigning is disgusting!
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