What's really wrong with Obama in Berlin
American presidential candidates leave the country for subtle small-audience campaigning surprisingly often. John McCain went to Ottawa and London in March with minimal fuss. But Barack Obama’s planned speech Thursday in Berlin is raising quite a bit more ire.
The iconography is one thing — the proto-Soviet sensibility of much of the Obama campaign’s graphic design (skilled as it is) is more jarring when presented in a foreign language. That goes double when the event is in a country noted historically for a cult of personality gone horrifically wrong.
But the real problem is the public nature of the event. It’s not being marketed to American voters in Berlin — you don’t need a German-language poster for that. It’s a mass event designed to simultaneously appeal to the German public and demonstrate Obama’s European popularity to Americans who can actually cast a vote for him.
What if he loses, though? Then Obama’s European campaigning has the consequence of further driving the political wedge between his mass support there and the rubes back home who — once again — had the temerity to elect someone not approved by their trans-Atlantic betters. It poisons the well overseas for anybody not on his side, and American politicians are doing too much of that already.
It could have benefits if he wins, sure. But he doesn’t have to pay up if his gamble fails. The country does.
24 July 2008 / 2 Comments / Tags: politics