Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Ok, so maybe I’m obsess over Kennedy’s famous speech just a little too much, and really I just wanted Obama to say it, just once, in jest, during his own speech in Berlin. For those of you who are completely clueless for whatever reason, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, literally translates to, “I am a jelly doughnut.” See below for original speech clip and a full explanation from Eddie Izzard.

But anywho, why am I talking about Presidents, candidates, and doughnuts? Because something deep inside possessed myself and my other American friend here, Jodie, to head out on July 24 to hear Barack Obama’s unprecedented speech in Berlin. Before I jump into that though I’ll give you some background of the day. Jodie and I left early on Thursday morning, along with one of Jodie’s friends from Cambridge, named David, who is an Aussie, living in England who is/was a television producer, who took time off to get an MBA. In commemoration of the epic day, I did in fact purchase us a few jelly doughnuts for the ride. Once in Berlin, we met up with a few more of Jodie’s friends, Shannon and Paul, also Americans. We had a picnic, took a boat ride, and generally just had a rather chill day in Berlin… which worked for me as I was carting along my whole bag for my weekend in Poland.

Obama-mania sort of filled the air while we were there. In fact, as we got off the train in the Hauptbanhof, (which to my irritation is not the same as it was 4 years ago… I mean literally not the same, the built a new one closer to the Reichstag).. we were walking up to the chancellor offices, when there were just masses of people standing around and large scale amounts of security. It didn’t take all that long to figure out what was going on, but opted not to sit around and wait to see a few cars drive by… so we kept walking… only have an even better view a few seconds later… enough so to get a pretty up close view of Obama as he went by. His little caravan more or less seemed to be where ever we were going, and his cars were followed by people on bikes following him around. There were supporters, and people who were just curious, and one old guy with an umbrella w/ McCain written on pieces of paper taped to it. There were lots of people… germans even, wearing Obama t-shirts and hats and things. I have to say its nothing that I would ever of imagined seeing. It just seems well, odd… even to the strongest of Obama supporters. Really… what business does a presidential candidate have in campaigning abroad, and what was the draw? And boy was it a draw….

By the time we headed over to the Victory Column, the first entrance into the area we tried to get in was closed. There was an estimated 200,000 people in the crowds… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. We ended up standing in the street way far in the back where we couldn’t even see. The Victory Column was chosen after a good month of rather heated debate here in Germany. Originally, Obama was to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate… a rather historical monument, where Reagan made his own famous speech, “tear down this wall”… However, chancellor Merkel stepped in and said, no way… that’s reserved for presidents (never mind that they hold all sorts of events including fashion shows at the gate)— all sorts of conspiracy theories went around here about how Bush had asked Merkel to step in, etc. I actually think it may have had something more to do with the construction going on in front of the gate where they were putting in new piping… but that’s just me.

I’m not entirely sure what people were expecting to hear… that he’d change the world, and this is how he was going to do it? It was a bit of an awkward speech, and you could sort of tell that he felt awkward giving it. The subject matter was broad and idealistic. He said everything that a liberal international affairs oriented individual would like to hear. End war in Iraq, save the environment, stop genocide (and he did say genocide) in Darfur, end torture, stop nuclear proliferation, do something about Zimbabwe, focus on Afghanistan… etc. etc. etc. It was all very nice ideas, and well, gives you sort of the warm fuzzies to hear someone talk about it. He wants to see the world unite and walls of the world torn down. It was about at this point that one of the people in our group asked, “Yes, but how does he plan on doing any of this?” Good point. There was no logical plan put out in the speech. You could see if it were a speech given at home, the plan would be something like, “And we can do this if you elect me president”… but here, it was more like someone stating the obvious.

I might just be a bit too cynical here. After all, everything he said makes perfect and clear sense to me as to what the U.S. or indeed the world should be focused on, but then again this is what I spend my time studying and looking at. Maybe the rest of the world needed some sort of reassurance as to what the goals and priorities of a potential next president would be. Just looking back at the laundry list of things I’ve listed you can make a comparison to the current administration and sort of see that the world may really have reason to have some concern. Look at the past 8 years and Bush’s stances on Kyoto, nuclear proliferation treaties, and Gitmo. When looked at from that perspective Obama’s speech radically flies in the face of recent U.S. foreign policy. And I think these are the things that people wanted to hear. Maybe the speech was made a little bit too early, maybe it should have been saved for if he becomes president. But at the same time I think that the speech shows that Obama really does have his hand on the pulse of foreign affairs. He said what people, especially Europeans wanted to hear, more or less blowing away the concept that he’s out of touch with the international community. The real question then becomes, from a realistic perspective, could he actually pull these ideals off? And what should this all mean for the everyday American?

In an extraordinarily vague nut shell, international cooperation good and easier to achieve when everyone works for the same things… and for the more pessimistic, you can also add in more bargaining chips… Good in terms of economics, development, and of course, security.

I think if I were Obama I’d have made that last point to be more clear… Unity will improve the world economy and security. Another point he left weak was when talking about how Europe and the U.S. relied on each other… He started off strong, but ended on just talking about how Europe needed the US for security. He should have pulled it back together… while he may have been showing off U.S. feathers, at the same time some people will look at it as a one sided relationship that the U.S. doesn’t necessarily need. And it would have been good for the European audience to hear how the U.S. needs Europe.

Admittedly, it was hard to judge who exactly Obama was talking to. Was he really addressing Berlin and the international community? If he was, did they find it patronizing to get a run down history of Berlin, and how the U.S. played a role? Or was that merely to educate joe six-pack American who doesn’t realize how closely tied the U.S. has been in European development for decades? But then again, outlining what the U.S. should be doing internationally sounds a lot like shelling out more money, and taking on more international responsibilities than the U.S. already has, which doesn’t really play well with your average Americans.

So I guess from a strategic perspective, I don’t think it was the best of moves. However, from the perspective of a relatively liberal American living in Europe… it was a pretty awesome experience to go and check it out.

Ok, for now my pictures from the event aren't posted... I was going to put them up tomorrow, but turns out I'm going away. So, check back here after I post again. Also, I'll have up pictures and posts from Poland. And hopefully throw up the Sweden pictures as well, and be caught up before I go to Russia... wow time is going by fast here!