esrosedotblog

THE SPEECH

I have been getting cranked up all week over the speech that Obama was to give in Berlin.

I was able to see it on line and it was pretty good.

Maybe excellent.

Maybe way excellent.

I am never a good judge of these things.

The crowd assembled long before he got started of course. It was huge. I have read 100,000 to 200,000. Big enough.

They were a 'nice' crowd. No rowdies. No peaceniks. Nothing that would 'look bad'. Let's face it, his remarks not-withstanding, this was a political speech.

He just didn't mention McCain or the bushies. But they were in there.

The weather was beautiful and it was about 720 PM when he came on. The light was just right.

He came in from a huge open area behind the monument, along a sky-blue walkway. I bet he walked over a hundred yards. The cheers went up and up and over. He was all alone. No introductions. Just Obama.

For all the talk about the site, the Brandenberg Gate is at the other end of the mall in the Teirgarten where he spoke and the crowd reached all the way up to it. It was there.

His words were simple. He built on the themes of the Berlin airlift and the alliance that brought food and comfort to the West Berliners who were holding their dream of freedom alive.

He wove this image of coming together with the image of the wall that had fallen and the walls that we, together, need to take down if we are to survive.

He repeated 'at this moment' as a cadence.

At this moment we must come together to defeat terrorism and wipe it out, we must end the war in Iraq, we must feed the hungry and disadvantage, we must rout out the remnants of despotism, we must save the planet from ourselves.

He took the transAtlantic alliance and coupled it with the larger world alliance. He focused on the European Union as a model.

It was a neat piece of work.

He said that he came as a citizen of America and a citizen of the world. Not a candidate.

Well, the candidate did very well nonetheless.

I do not know what it will do to his bona fides and his numbers for those who feel him unprepared for the world stage and the security of the country but he sure preached pretty well to this choir member.

I am looking for a video and I will plug it in here when I find one.

Labels: Barack Obama