Thread: Obama to Berlin: This is our time

Obama to Berlin: 'This is our time'

July 24, 2008Recommend (2)

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN — Before an enormous crowd, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Thursday summoned Europeans and Americans together to ‘‘defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it’’ as surely as they conquered communism a generation ago.

‘‘The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand,’’ Obama said, speaking not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city.

» Click to enlarge image Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, wave from a balcony prior to talks at the chancellery in Berlin Thursday.
(AP)

RELATED STORIESObama in high-stakes talks with leaders Obama helps mom's campaign to get 4 kids back Lynn Sweet blogs on the road with Obama Berlin saw speeches by JFK, Reagan McCain eats in Columbus' German Village John McCain to meet with Dalai Lama

‘‘The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand,’’ he said.

Obama said he was speaking as a citizen, not as a president, but the evening was awash in politics. His remarks inevitably invited comparison to historic speeches in the same city by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and he borrowed rhetoric from his own appeals to campaign audiences in the likes of Berlin, N.H., when he addressed a crowd in one of the great cities of Europe.

‘‘People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time,’’ he said.

Obama’s speech was the centerpiece of a fast-paced tour through Europe designed to reassure skeptical voters back home about his ability to lead the country and take a frayed cross-Atlantic alliance in a new direction after eight years of the Bush administration.

Republicans, chafing at the media attention Obama’s campaign-season trip has drawn, sought to stoke doubts abut his claims.

In Die Welt, the German publication, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., said: ‘‘No one knows which Obama will show. Will it be the ideological, left-wing Democratic primary candidate who vowed to ’end’ the war rather than win it, or the Democratic nominee who dismisses the progressing coalition victory as a ’distraction’? Will it be the American populist who has told supporters in the United States that he will demand more from our allies in Europe and get it, or the liberal internationalist hell-bent on being liked in Europe’s salons?’’

Obama met earlier in the day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a discussion that ranged across the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, climate change, energy issues and more.

Knots of bystanders waited along Obama’s motorcade route for him to pass. One man yelled out in English, ‘‘Yes, we can,’’ the senator’s campaign refrain, when he emerged from his car to enter his hotel.

Obama drew loud applause as he strode confidently across a large podium erected at the base of the Victory Column in Tiergarten Park in the heart of Berlin.

He also drew loud applause when he talked of a world without nuclear weapons and again when he called for steps to counter climate change.

Obama mentioned Iraq, a war he has opposed from the start, only in passing. But in discussing Afghanistan, he said, ‘‘no one welcomes war. ... But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success.’’

He referred repeatedly to the Berlin airlift, launched by the Allies 60 years ago when the Russians sought to isolate the Western part of the city. If they had succeeded, he said, Communism would have marched across Europe. ‘‘Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun,’’ the presidential candidate said.

Now, he said, the enemy is different but the need for an alliance is the same as he cited terrorism and the extremism that supports it. ‘‘This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it,’’ he said.‘‘The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand,’’ Obama said, speaking not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided the city.

‘‘The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand,’’ he said.

Obama said he was speaking as a citizen, not as a president, but the evening was awash in politics. His remarks inevitably invited comparison to historic speeches in the same city by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and he borrowed rhetoric from his own appeals to campaign audiences in the likes of Berlin, N.H., when he addressed a crowd in one of the great cities of Europe.

‘‘People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time,’’ he said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/o ... 8.article#

I watched the speech. All we needed was him at the front of the Titanic screaming...I'M KING OF THE WORLD!

Well, the king of the world had time to play basketball but not enought time to visit the wounded soldiers in Germany.

The more time goes on the more I hate this bozo!!

Hes done nothing to show he's qualified!

He can't make up his mind on anything one week its up the next its down.

His wife and pastor hate white peope and America's Values.

He's in bed with terrorists!

on and on and on

The media sucks too on how muck coverage they give him and they never ask him the hard questions.

SUCKS!!!!!!!

"The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand."

Thank you, Barak Marx - that theory worked out so well for the former U.S.S.R. before it became financially bankrupt and "redivided itself". How about the wealthy and corrupt elites of those countries "with the least" being forced to tax themselves equitably as do the U.S., Canada, and Western European democracies in order to provide education, medical care, and social services for more of their own citizens at home?

It was truely scarey to watch. Maybe the Europeans appreciate it, but I found his arrogance embarrassing. I felt totally like this man could really care less about America or it's people.....he has bigger fish to fry......the world.

Socialism I cant stand BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA. Who does he think he is anyway? He acts as though ONLY HE CAN SAVE THE WORLD.

One phrase came to mind when I saw those pictures of thousands of cheering Germans at the feet of Obama as he was about to deliver his speech.

Misery loves company!

Obama said he was speaking as a citizen, not as a president,

Wonder if you consider yourself an embarrassment for giving this speech in English?

You are sickening to me either way! Just ANOTHER TRAITOR, IMO!!

What arrogance! What chutzpah!!! He's looking more like a Chicago South-side, ACLU community activist turned politician, than an Elite Globalist. There ain't nothin' ELITE about him!

He is neither inspiring or original, and he certainly ain't no Kennedy or Reagan!!! Kennedy and Reagan had passion and conviction...one thing that Obama is sadly lacking! What a phony, self-promoting. anti-American traitor! Karl Marx would be proud of him!

He never misses an opportunity to denigrate the US...I wanted to reach out and slap him!

Even in his opening words he said" "I come here, not as a Candidate...but as a Citizen. A citizen of the United States and a citizen of the world!

NOTE: HE DID NOT SAY "A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA " - He could have meant the United States of the Americas, for all we know...

Europe is welcome to keep him there...maybe he can run for President of the EU!

He is just another ONE-WORLD GLOBALIST traitor, and not a very good one!

I have been listening to talk radio and I have heard several callers that referred to Hussein as the antichrist. This has been my thought for quite awhile, not just because of his speech in Germany.

This idiot is a meglomaniac to the nth degree and it scares the h--- out of me that so many will vote NOT for McCain, but for those who can't win, deliberately handing the country (and the world he covets) over to Hussein.