Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Matthews: Berlin Sun ‘Ruined’ Obama’s Speech
national review ^ | 6/19 | johnson

Posted on 06/19/2013 8:16:29 AM PDT by RummyChick

MSNBC host and Obama sycophant Chris Matthews blamed the sun for spoiling the president’s speech in Berlin today.

“I think a lot of the problem he had today was the late afternoon sun in Berlin ruined his use of the teleprompter and so his usual dramatic windup was ruined,” Matthews said immediately after the speech. “I think he was really struggling with the text there.”

Speaking behind a glass bulletproof shield, Obama appeared to be using the text of the speech rather than reading off of teleprompters.


TOPICS: Germany; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: berlinspeech; brandenburgspeech; chrismatthews; obama; obamapeech
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last
To: edwinland

The Berlin Sun hates Communists, remember the joke from “The Lives of Others”?

One morning, while General Secretary Erich Honecker is doing his exercises on his balcony, the sun calls out to him and says: “Good morning, Herr Honecker!”

Amazed, Honecker tells his Politburo about it at a meeting a few hours later. They all head over to his house to see what’s going on.

At noon, while they’re all assembled on the balcony, the sun addresses him once more: “Good day, Herr Honecker!” The General Secretary and Politburo spend the rest of the day talking about the miracle until the sun is just about to disappear beyond the horizon.

This time, however, it remains silent. “Sun,” Honecker calls out. “You greeted me in the morning and at noon, so why not in the evening?” The sun replies: “Screw you, I’m in the West now!”


41 posted on 06/19/2013 8:55:31 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: InterceptPoint

If the citizens of Berlin don’t call themselves Berliners what DO they call themselves?


42 posted on 06/19/2013 9:03:54 AM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Wow! Nice reference!

I never saw that movie but I heard that joke in the 80’s from someone who lived had lived in Russia in the 70’s, except that it was about Lenin or Brezhnev, and it had the sun slowly travelling over Russia.

The other one I heard at the same time was this:

An American is trying to explain freedom of speech to a Russian. For example, he says “I can go to the front gate of the White house and yell ‘Jimmy Carter is an idiot’”. The Russian doesn’t get it and he replies “Well, I can go to the Kremlin and yell the same thing”.

I was told that Russians thought that joke was hilarious.


43 posted on 06/19/2013 9:11:48 AM PDT by edwinland
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Never heard it but liked it a lot.


44 posted on 06/19/2013 9:13:31 AM PDT by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick
JFK is,IMO,just about the last prominent Rat who was worthy of any respect from decent,respectable Americans.Listen carefully to his Inaugural Address ("we will support *any* friend,oppose *any* foe"),his speech at the Berlin Wall ("let *them* come to Berlin") and his speeches about cutting taxes ("a rising tide lifts all boats").And no respectable American can question the greatness of President Reagan.Hearing Osama Obama speak in Berlin is like hearing the Jason Lipschitz Jug Band performing Pachelbel’s Canon.

It wasn't the sun that spoiled either of his addresses there.It was his utter and complete lack of credibility.

45 posted on 06/19/2013 9:16:50 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (The Civil Servants Are No Longer Servants...Or Civil.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: InterceptPoint
If the citizens of Berlin don’t call themselves Berliners what DO they call themselves?

OK. I'll give up the historical secret. Berliners do call themselves Berliners. But a "Berliner" is also the name given to a popular German Jelly Donut.

So when Kennedy gave his famous speech ("Ich bin ein Berliner") the story went around and is still going around that the Germans interpreted this as "I am a Jelly Donut".

There is no question as to what Kennedy said but the fact that the Germans hearing the speech would be laughing rather than applauding Kennedy's pronouncement is in dispute. In fact, it is rather in doubt.

Do a Google search (on "donut Ich bin ein Berliner") and you can read all about it.

46 posted on 06/19/2013 9:17:52 AM PDT by InterceptPoint (If I had a tag line this is where you would find it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: DManA; newheart

Oops. Post 46 should have posted to you two. See above.


47 posted on 06/19/2013 9:20:47 AM PDT by InterceptPoint (If I had a tag line this is where you would find it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: liberalh8ter

Also required, a “Spit Shield”.


48 posted on 06/19/2013 9:24:03 AM PDT by GOYAKLA (Waiting for the Golden Screw to be removed from Obama's navel and his a$$ falls off!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick

“Ich bin ein scheiskopf.”


49 posted on 06/19/2013 9:24:08 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys=Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat, but they know what's best for you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: InterceptPoint
I know the history.

But schtupid.

50 posted on 06/19/2013 9:27:50 AM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick

Matthews is a national disgrace. He needs to get another bucket to carry more water for Obama.


51 posted on 06/19/2013 9:30:35 AM PDT by Lions Gate
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick

Our Pacific Islander POTUS has problems with the sun?


52 posted on 06/19/2013 9:33:27 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike ("Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." Lao Tzu)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PATRIOT1876
Ohaha and Carney will stop to kiss the statue of Goebbels.....and Mrs O will take notes on Eva Braun's tricks and treats for dictators.

O couldn't get that Jack Kennedy vibe at the Brandenburg Gate.

Mrs O bombed at being Jackie Kennedy---via the Oval Office redecorating fiasco and 24/7 wardrobe disasters.....but she has yet to vacation in the Taj Mahal.

Mrs O's biggest bomb to date was her ill-advised Academy Awards appearance which tout Hollywood dissed. Not even a mention of her lavish gown in post-Academy stories.

53 posted on 06/19/2013 9:48:39 AM PDT by Liz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Hotlanta Mike

“Our Pacific Islander POTUS has problems with the sun?”

Our pacifist has a big problem with sunlight shining on his multiple communist scandals in DC. The sunlight followed him to Berlin.


54 posted on 06/19/2013 9:49:10 AM PDT by melancholy (Professor S. Alinsky, Fleet Maintenance, White Hive Trolley Bosses)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Liz

*Mrs O’s biggest bomb to date was her ill-advised Academy Awards appearance which tout Hollywood dissed. Not even a mention of her lavish gown in post-Academy stories. *

Derelicte!

http://youtu.be/mVscQYjuq_s


55 posted on 06/19/2013 10:21:09 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (The only crimes that are 100% preventable are crimes committed by illegal aliens)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick

I’m predicting tonight’s news coverage will be a closeup shot of Our Zero in front of his few invited “guests” at the Brandenburg Gate, with some shots of the 200,000 people whose concert was invaded by 0’s speech at the Victory Column. Quick switch to JFK’s Berliner speech and the attempted iconization of 0 will be complete.


56 posted on 06/19/2013 10:22:32 AM PDT by ntnychik
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RummyChick

The Germans have Obama’s number and game. They’ve seen it all before with Hitler and company. Hilter, Mussolini, Stalin, Castro, Chavez, Mao, Idi Amin, Nero, Caligula, Obama...same act, different time...all despots, dictators, destroyers of freedom & Liberty!!! Actually....the entire world is laughing at how dumb the American people are for having voted for this incompetent, buffoon, Barack Hussein Obama!!! Go figure!!!


57 posted on 06/19/2013 11:16:06 AM PDT by JLAGRAYFOX ( My only objective is to defeat and destroy Obama & his Democrat Party, politically!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DManA

From Wiki-

There is a misconception that Kennedy made a risible error by saying Ich bin ein Berliner (emphasis added): the claim is made that Kennedy referred to himself not as a “citizen of Berlin” but as a “jelly doughnut”, known in Berlin as a “Pfannkuchen” but as “Berliner” [8][9] in the north and west and as “Krapfen” in the south of Germany and in Austria. Kennedy should, supposedly, have said Ich bin Berliner to mean “I am a person from Berlin”, and so adding the indefinite article ein to his statement implied he was a non-human Berliner, thus, “I am a jelly doughnut”.[10]

However, while the indefinite article ein is omitted when speaking of an individual’s profession or residence, it is still necessary when speaking in a figurative sense as Kennedy did. Since the President was not literally from Berlin but only declaring his solidarity with its citizens, “Ich bin ein Berliner” was correct.[10]

An early reference to this misconception appears in Len Deighton’s spy novel Berlin Game, published in 1983, which contains the following passage, spoken by Bernard Samson: ‘Ich bin ein Berliner,’ I said. It was a joke. A Berliner is a doughnut. The day after President Kennedy made his famous proclamation, Berlin cartoonists had a field day with talking doughnuts.[11]

In Deighton’s novel, Samson is an unreliable narrator and his words cannot necessarily be taken at face value. However The New York Times review of Deighton’s novel appeared to treat Samson’s remark as factual, and added the detail that Kennedy’s audience found his remark funny: Here is where President Kennedy announced, Ich bin ein Berliner, and thereby amused the city’s populace because in the local parlance a Berliner is a doughnut.[12]

Four years later it found its way into a New York Times op-ed:
It’s worth recalling, again, President John F. Kennedy’s use of a German phrase while standing before the Berlin Wall. It would be great, his wordsmiths thought, for him to declare himself a symbolic citizen of Berlin. Hence, Ich bin ein Berliner. What they did not know, but could easily have found out, was that such citizens never refer to themselves as ‘Berliners.’ They reserve that term for a favorite confection often munched at breakfast. So, while they understood and appreciated the sentiments behind the President’s impassioned declaration, the residents tittered among themselves when he exclaimed, literally, “I am a jelly-filled doughnut.” — William J. Miller, “I Am a Jelly-Filled Doughnut”, The New York Times

The doughnut claim has since been repeated by media such as the BBC (by Alistair Cooke in his Letter from America program),[13] The Guardian,[14] MSNBC,[15] CNN,[16] Time magazine,[17] and The New York Times;[5] mentioned in several books about Germany written by English-speaking authors, including Norman Davies[18] and Kenneth C. Davis;[19] and used in the manual for the Speech Synthesis Markup Language.[20]


58 posted on 06/19/2013 1:16:33 PM PDT by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: hattend

For most people it’s just too funny not to be true.


59 posted on 06/19/2013 1:23:35 PM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: DManA
In American english, it is the difference between “I am Danish” and “I am a Danish”.
60 posted on 06/19/2013 1:42:05 PM PDT by NathanR
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson