This is the moment (4.00 / 1)

It may all end in tears but just for once it is nice to feel hopeful that things can get better.

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by: conspiracy @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 13:25:36 PM CDT

Kennedy analogy probably apt, unfortunately (0.00 / 0)

JFK may have made you feel hopeful but it was all superficiality, as many of us fear is also the case with Obama.

Don't be afraid to hope, but it is silly to place your hope in the person of a politician.  

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by: Jason C. @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 13:51:54 PM CDT

My hope is not in the politician (4.00 / 6)

But in the fact that he is calling young people to join in and confront the problems that face us. He isn't minimizing the problems, and he is calling epople to look beyond themselves.

This is very different from "Be afraid, very afraid, and go shopping.  Let us manage things for you, and don't question."


John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

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by: Mimikatz @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 13:57:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Here's the text (4.00 / 1)

In a diary by Meteor Blades at Kos.  He's two years younger than I, and a greater critic of US policy.  But he agrees that the speech was historic and made him proud to be an American.  

But today, I was given hope for change. It made me proud to be an American.

As with all policy, foreign policy is more than words. Carrying out a new vision, tearing down all those walls and confronting all those problems, whether of genocide or global warming, will be far harder than speaking in the warm sun before an appreciative crowd. But I was inspired today to believe it can happen. Thank you, Senator Obama.

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

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by: Mimikatz @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 13:53:48 PM CDT

I didn't see or hear (0.00 / 0)

the speech, I read it. My sense is, it was too much of a Clintonian-style laundry list to be considered great or to become historic. climate change? check. terrorism? check? human rights? check. Darfur? check. Also too safe, with nary a provocative line. Don't get me wrong, I liked to hear him foreswear torture and talk about fair trade and point out that poverty breeds violence, but it failed, I think, to coalesce into a large powerful argument. Also, it was less well written than his other speeches, with more cliches than usual. "The road ahead will be long." The unifying theme of unity is too vague and trite. I liked when he talked about the interconnectedness of the world:

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

Note "Kansas to Kenya," presenting himself as the embodiment of our interconnectedness.  

This is the worst line:

In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common.

This was the standard Obama effort to talk a small bit of truth to his audience, but surely America is part of what has gone wrong.

I think he would've been better served picking a tighter theme.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

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by: david mizner @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 14:19:12 PM CDT

Broad Strokes (0.00 / 0)

When speaking before a large crowd of two-hundred thousand, it's best to use broad strokes rather than focus on details.  But that's not to say that Obama didn't paint an awesome landscape.  

This speech was not intended to be a policy speech.  What I got from this speech was that Obama was serving notice that the mantra of You're with us or against us, along with the neocon policies of unilateralism will soon be over.  But with that comes a responsibility of hard work and shared sacrifice from all of us.  Obama was letting the people of Europe know that despite the past eight years, they still have a trusted friend in America, and there is still the promise of hope, but we must stay united.  He reminded the citizens of Europe and the United States, that this is our moment.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"
...

In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared destiny.

...
So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.

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by: Kane @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 22:23:48 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

As usual, it was better seen than read (0.00 / 0)

He was treading a fine line here.  Some of the commentators on CNN and MSNBC questioned how the line about America not having perfected itself would play at home.  He was speaking to a German and European audience, a world audience and to the folks at home, many of whom think he's scary and doesn't love America.  Bestriding a chasm is something he does well, even if it is only with smoke and fancy words, and this speech was that in spades, shall we say.  And the crowds (200,000 seems to be the consensus) really were very, very enthusiastic, and from what the cameras showed, pretty young.  And multi-racial.

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

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by: Mimikatz @ Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 16:01:55 PM CDT