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What Do You Want to Know from Obama’s German Fans?

Posted by JOERG WOLF in At TMV.
Jul 23rd, 2008 | Comments

Berlin is abuzz about Senator Obama’s upcoming speech on Thursday 7:00 PM local time.

How many folks will come to see the messiah as he has been called by some journalists over here? Many press outlets quoted a city government official’s estimate of 10,000 to one million people. Wow, that is so precise! It seems that nobody else dares to publish an estimate. It could be a comparatively small gathering. Or it could be a huge gathering like when President Kennedy said “Ich bin ein Berliner.” This is so exciting…

Obama has been described as the New Kennedy by a German tabloid. Apparently Obama is going to follow in Kennedy’s footsteps and will say in German “I can listen.” That is certainly the message Germans (Europeans) want to hear. It will, however, be a campaign event to win votes in the US. (For some strange reason, Europeans are still not allowed to vote in US elections, despite the important role America plays around the world.) Thus, he is expected to deliver some tough love: No more free rides for Europe.

It is unprecedented. Anne Applebaum writes that Obama’s world tour indicates a change in America’s political culture: American voters are aware of the damage the current administration has done to the US image and are not indifferent to how their country is perceived abroad: “The Most Popular American in Europe Since Elvis“

I will attend his speech and try to capture the mood in the audience with my video camera. I will also conduct random interviews with ordinary folks in the audience.

What questions shall I ask? Is there anything you would like to know from German Obama fans and critics? (I will also ask American Berliners and others.) I guess, one of the obvious questions would be: Will you support sending German troops to southern Afghanistan, if President Obama asks for it? What else? I’d appreciate your input! Thanks.

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archangel

thank you for asking: please ask discerning Germans who are older if they see any parallels in the USA today to 1933 pre Third Reich Germany...high inflation, a sense of having been beaten, a sense the nation has fallen from its greatness to a considerable degree, having been defeated in a long war some decades previous, in an economic slump with other nations surging ahead, a desire to have a strong fresh leader who would restore pride, et al

dr.e

D. E.Rodriguez

Good questions, dr e.

Pleas also ask the Europeans what they think of the mentality of those iin the U.S. who propose that European admiration (almost adulation) and respect for Obama will "hurt" the candidate.

Thanks

Ricorun

Ask them if they'd mind if Obama gave Merkel a backrub.

DLS

Dr. E: The Obama phenomenon in the USA is a personality cult (overseas it is somewhat of a personality cult but mainly a celebrity phenomenon) that is driven by superficial appeal, political correctness, and reverse-discriminatory "identity politics" among many liberals, most notably "progressive" [sic] whites.

It has next to nothing to do with the late state of affairs in our economy or the more long-standing situation in Iraq and distrust of the Republicans, which were made evident in the 1996 elections.

Obama is the Messiah to the personality cultists this election year.

Obama is attractive, young, smooth-talking, articulate, and master of sound bites.

Obama has the liberal media behind him rather than against him.

There is more personality cult and religiosity with Obama than you may suspect.

Obama is not only the PC crowd's Messiah.

He is also their most beloved, personified *** ANTI-BUSH ***.

elrod

Obama is not a "messiah" to his backers in the US. That's a caricature. Many of us support Obama for the reasons Andrew Sullivan has laid out: Obama is a reasonable and pragmatic man who helps turn the generational page past the Baby Boomer culture wars. He's a fairly conventional Democrat, but unlike other Democrats, he's unafraid to stand up for himself and he actually has charisma.

He's not the messiah. He's just a damn good politician and one that I think will make an effective President.

DLS

"That's a caricature."

It's a stereotype fully supported by the truth about so many of his white "progressive" supporters.

Incidentally, Obama is a Baby Boomer, not the "post-Boomer" so many claim.

What interests me is that he has not been reluctant to go his own way rather than the establishment's in Chicago (though he has demonstrated there that he'll work with the establishment and even talk to conservatives if this is useful). This allays a major concern I had (that he'd be like another Daley as well as being like another Carter or McGovern).

RememberNovember

"That's a caricature."

It's a stereotype fully supported by the truth about so many of his white "progressive" supporters."

Obama was born in'61- that puts him at the tail end of the baby boom.

So you're not really talking about Obama, but rather some of the fringe of his supporters. I equate these people with the rabid "HillRaiser" Hillary contrarian supporters-cum-McCain whiners. The opposition beatifying him as a "messiah" is ironic- because most of his supporters don't. It's those who want to Made in China -flag-pin it on him.

and what of those who proslytize McCain as the "War Hero", is that any less so of charictarurization? People are so much more than what the media tries to typecast them as.

labels, labels labels....lets just keep them on the table table table.

pacatrue

Without labels, we'd have to consider people and ideas individually -- and sometimes that could make us look at our own opinions again. That's got to be stopped. Therefore, it's best to wage a battle over the moral superiority of the Left or the Right, blame conservatives and liberals, dismiss support for one candidate as irrational so that we don't have to think of two intelligent people as simply disagreeing, and on and on.

DLS

"This is so exciting…"

I know. [rolling eyes]

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