Senator, you are a model for liberalism - not progressivism. You are the OLD not the NEW. Bill Clinton brought NEW ideas, you bring rehashed OLD ideas.
You have had many opportunities to show that you mean change, but fail each time. You rely upon money, corporations, and lobbyists. You play the games and mimic that which you condemn in others. Now you want the photo op to top all photo ops. Grand standing.
Berlin, a city torn apart by war, is the perfect setting for an American president preaching peace. Ronald Reagan famously stood metres away from the Brandenburg Gate and called on the Soviet Union to tear down the Wall dividing Europe. And President Kennedy used a Cold War visit to the once and future German capital to declare: “ich bin ein Berliner!”
Now Barack Obama, the presidential candidate, wants to grandstand there too. But a simmering row between the German Government and the local Berlin authorities could rob the Democratic politician of a photogenic moment at the Brandenburg Gate and derail his flagship tour of Europe this month.
The plan, Obama advisers have told Der Spiegel magazine, is to use the visit on July 24 to signal an imminent improvement in the transatlantic relationship.
"The Senator was criticised in the primaries for showing insufficient interest in Europe," said the unnamed adviser. "This visit is an answer to this criticism ... the memories of John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech are still very fresh — Berlin is a bridge between East and West."
Berlin, in short, is the place to establish foreign policy credentials and make rhetorical flourishes. Somehow standing outside No 10 with Gordon Brown does not have the same resonance or filmic potential. And the pitstop in Paris is sure to fall foul of the Carla factor, with photographers going for the glamour shot, Mme Sarkozy embracing Mr Obama, rather than focusing on the chiselled statesman-in-waiting. The Senator from Chicago needs cheering crowds and they may be in short supply if, as expected, his trip takes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
You are not new Senator, you are the OLD party. Why the people cannot see this is beyond me at this point. We can always hope.
By the way Senator, US / German relations are better today than they were 10 years ago. I am not quite sure what you intend to fix. Always wanting to fix and repair, but given what is clear to the world - US relations have mended themselves, not because the US adjusted itself, but because the countries in question elected leaders who were willing to talk to the US.
Every day I hear you speak, it bothers me more that you seem top believe what you are saying, and worse, that others believe it.
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