Posted on 08/04/2008 7:35:51 AM PDT by IrishMike
AS the presidential candidates enter the three-month sprint to November, Barack Obama must be wondering: If that didn't do it, what will?
"That" is his Berlin speech. "It" is assuage anxieties about his understanding of the need to supplement diplomacy with military force.
Obama exhorted Germans to be more willing to wage war, in Afghanistan. He was right to do so.
But polls taken since his trip abroad don't indicate that Obama succeeded in altering the oddest aspect of this campaign: Measured against his party's surging strength, he's dramatically underperforming. Surely this is related to anxieties about his thin resume regarding national security, the thinnest of any major party nominee since Wendell Wilkie's in 1940. But it also might be related to fatigue from too much of his eloquence, which is beginning to sound formulaic and perfunctory.
Even an eloquent politician can become, as Benjamin Disraeli described William Gladstone, "a sophistical rhetorician inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Sen. Barack Obama chastised us Americans for not speaking the language of the countries we visit.
He stands in the great tradition of President John Kennedy, who concluded his Berlin speech with Ich bin ein Berliner I am a jelly roll (or donut).
The correct German would have been Ich bin Berliner
Why is George Will offering advice that if the haloed one were to follow, could get him elected???
OBAMA!...OBAMA!...OBAMA!...OBAMA!...OBAMA!
I was very suprised at Obama’s choice of Berlin as a venue for the speech.
When JFK and Reagan spoke there, Berlin was the focal point of the Cold War with the Soviets right on the other side of the wall. The current status of Berlin is the result of the efforts of those who actually didn’t back down or “negotiate” with evil.
To be really analogous to the previous Berlin speeches, Obama should have delivered the speech in Jerusalem, Baghdad, or even Kabul- which Obama (absurdly) describes as the Central Front in the global war on terror.
“Obama exhorted Germans to be more willing to wage war, in Afghanistan.”
Don’t hold your breath waiting.
“JUST WORDS, JUST WORDS!”
People are going to soon recognize that the main reason he has achieved this exalted position in his party is that his name is not Clinton and that’s all.
1. Mr. Will is paid to analyze and punditize on such things.
2. There is nothing Obama can do about "his thin resume regarding national security, the thinnest of any major party nominee since Wendell Wilkie's in 1940." Except talk ... and as Mr. Will points out, that's becoming a weak point for The One Who Is To Come.
From the Democrats' perspective, they may now be starting to realize that Obama's appeal is almost entirely emotional, and that's a bad thing. If one must compare it to something, I think it would be most closely akin to the headlong rush that accompanies one's first romance -- all hope and excitement, untempered by the experience that comes only with time. Most -- nearly all -- first romances don't survive the initial rush; the realities of the other person simply cannot live up to those magical first weeks.
The Democrats' only hope is that they can continue to maintain the emotional frenzy surrounding Mr. Obama's candidacy until November. That's going to be a very tough job.
it’s too late. G. Will does indeed give good advice, at least in this instance. But the McCain campaign has all the fodder it needs for 3 months of TV aids.. The cosomopolition citizen of the world is enough to sink him, and has.. I truly believe it’s over for B.O. Before the trip I was b*tching and moaning on FR that McCain was a lousy candidate and that he won’t win... Now , thanks to B.O’s own arrogance with that overblown trip, there is no way he could lose.
the mile high stadium thing will be a further disaster. the adoring crowds do not help BO.. they hurt him. it looks creepy, to us adults.. reminds us of the Beatles and that over the top crying of the crowds.
Oh! that’s Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Oh my bad for not catching that bit of information. I must be qualified for working at the FEC - Federal Election Commission.
Many students of history think it not a bad thing if Germans are underrepresented in world military endeavours.
"Have received 3 mailings from BO, and each time my last name (7 letters) has one letter changed or omitted.
Knowing what I do about his money laundering history - I can only assume the modifications of one letter off the last name, and then migrating to altering the first name, is one place where they will take the Mid-East money, and claim that each individual with a different spelling, gave BO $199.99 so that it doesnt have to be reported.
They can keep doing that up til the $2300 dollar limit for the many people they make me out to be.
I have saved copies of the letters and will send them to the FEC."
Would it really be that easy to cheat the system and not get caught?
Even an eloquent politician can become, as Benjamin Disraeli described William Gladstone, "a sophistical rhetorician inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity."
Ding ding ding, we have a winner!
His sweet, dulcet tones sound like a lead nickel hitting the counter. As was said about Kerry four years ago, "There is no there there."
Regards,
GtG
‘T’would be rather comical as the obaminations would take up about a 1/4 page, if that - while McC’s would keep on scrolling down....
Mayhap some more sheeple would get the picture
It seems that most of all mrs. O has done has managed to get into lucrative positions thanks to the influence of her, at the time, state senator husband - but what does she actually DO to collect her multi-hundreds of thousands?
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