US elections: Obama wows Berlin crowd with historic speech - by Jonathan Freedland
For the man who has brought rock-star charisma to electoral politics, today saw the campaign rally as pop festival, a summer gathering of peace, love — and loathing of George Bush. Taking what he calls his "improbable journey" to the heart of Europe, Barack Obama succeeded in closing down one of Berlin's main thoroughfares tonight, luring the city's young in their tens of thousands to stand in the evening sunshine and hear him spin his dreams of hope, not for America this time, but for the whole world.
The young and the pierced, some with guitars slung over their shoulders, others barefoot, jammed up against each other to cheer on a man who in less than a year has become the world's most popular serving politician, even
if, as yet, he has been elected to no office grander than the junior Senate seat for Illinois.By common consent, tonight and the entire Obama week has been a huge success, generating priceless images for TV consumption back home and helping Obama cross the credibility gap — making it easier for Americans to imagine him as a player on the world stage.
1 comment:
Great. All this tells me is that Europeans can gets sucked in by Obama's flowery words just as easily as his supporters in the U.S. do.
Face it. The guy has no track record of ANY accomplishments and is all polish and no substance.
If people in the U.S. want to live like Europeans, here's an idea: move to Europe. The country is just fine as is.
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