◼ Ich bin ein snoop? Obama greeted with hilarious ‘yes we scan’ signs in Berlin [pics] - Twitchy
◼ Barack Obama returned to Berlin today, almost five years to the day from when he delivered his famous "Victory Column" speech that cemented his reputation as an international rockstar. Unfortunately, his reception this time was a lot different. - The Atlantic
Fast forward to 2013, and many are now saying that Obama's reputation is "tarnished," by his recent snooping scandals, his extensions of the war on terror, and the hard luck realities of failing to deliver on all your promises. (Even ones you didn't really make.) He's "demystified" and "no longer a superstar" in German eyes. Now he's just another world leader on a state visit, and whatever problems people have with U.S. policy are on his shoulders.
And instead of opening up the speech to the whole city, Obama spoke in front only about 5,000-6,000 spectators, all of them invited guests.
2008
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| (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) |
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| (REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz) |
Almost five years later, Germans have undergone “a brutal sobering up” with regard to Mr. Obama, said Ralf Fücks, who heads the board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a nonprofit political organization in Berlin. It is, he said, as overdone as the euphoria of 2008, but also a bit alarming....
To judge from interviews with Berliners, though, there is little interest in or understanding of the complex trade talks, which are just starting. Rather, the data surveillance scandal has fired the popular imagination here, guaranteeing that Ms. Merkel, up for re-election in September, will raise the matter with Mr. Obama.
It is not as if Internet users outside the United States did not know that their digital movements might be watched, said Patrick Conley, 47, a media historian who lives in Berlin. “But you know it more exactly now,” he said. “In foreign policy terms, it is a catastrophe.”
That is particularly so in Germany, where state snooping was a dominant feature of the Nazi and Communist regimes. News that Facebook, which attracted 51 percent of German Internet users last year, according to the industry group Bitkom, had given up data to Washington’s surveillance program was a special shock here.
◼ Racist! Chris Matthews notices Greatest Orator Evah struggled in Berlin without teleprompter - Twitchy
◼ Matthews: Berlin Sun Ruined Obama’s Use of Teleprompters - Washington Free Beacon
◼ NYT acknowledges Obama's difficulties interacting with foreign leaders. - Althouse
◼ Barack Obama bombs in Berlin: a weak, underwhelming address from a floundering president - Nile Gardiner/Telegraph
In stark contrast to that of his presidential predecessors, Barack Obama’s message on Wednesday was pure mush, another clichéd “citizens of the world” polemic with little substance. This was a speech big on platitudes and hopeless idealism, while containing much that was counter-productive for the world’s superpower. Ultimately it was little more than a laundry list of Obama’s favourite liberal pet causes...
Obama’s distinctly unimpressive speech in Berlin was another dud from a floundering president whose leadership abroad is just as weak as it is at home.
