Barack Obama, accompanied by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, visited the community of Sderot, target of frequent terrorist rocket attacks, yesterday.
** “PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD.” From the foreign editor of Der Spiegel: “44 Has Spoken” By Gerhard Spörl
Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin’s Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious — he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world.
It was a ton to absorb — and what a stupendous ride through world history: the story of his own family, the Berlin Airlift, terrorists, poorly secured nuclear material, the polar caps, World War II, America’s errors, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, freedom. It’s amazing one could even pack such a potpourri of issues into sentences and then succeed in squeezing them all into the space of a speech that lasted less than 30 minutes.
So what still sticks? That Barack Obama is a passionate politician who is fixated on and takes very seriously his desire for a bit of uptopia and a better world. That he is an impressive speaker who knows how to casually draw his audience into his image of the world — one who doesn’t have any need to resort to the kind of cheap effects that tend to prompt the uproarious applause of an audience. That he is a typical American — an idealist in the true spirit of the American success story who is now very casually making his claim to become something akin to the president of the world.
He also could have said: We are a world power, the only one that exists on this planet at the moment, and I am going to act as if that were the case. But you’re also allowed to participate in the attempt to try to save the world — at least a bit of it. In that sense I am different from George W. Bush — very different. Indeed, Barack Obama has his own sound — it’s more utopian, he speaks of the general human desire for better conditions for all of humanity; and he speaks of the longing for strong and dynamic presidents and chancellors who are capable of acting on a global scale. With this drive and this radiance, he managed to drive Hillary Clinton out of the campaign. It is also the way he is going to outpace John McCain on November 4. It is the way he took the hearts of Americans by storm and it is the way he is now taking Europe by storm.
Anyone who saw him make the short way from the Victory Column in Berlin on Thursday to the podium saw a man with the serious gait of a basketball player, a man who seemed young, decisive and focused. For those who witnessed his appearance in Berlin, it is hard to imagine that John McCain still has any chance. McCain is 25 years his senior, a man who because of the torture he endured in Vietnam is in constant pain — unable to comb his hair or lift his arm in celebration.
Europe is witnessing the 44th president of the United States during this trip. Anyone who listens to him quickly realizes that he is not only ambitious but will also make demands. In the inner circles of Angela Merkel’s Chancellery, he is reportedly seen as a pleasant person, one who arouses curiosity.
However, he is also certain to demand the help of the Germans, Brits and French in Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s not going to allow NATO to shirk its duty — and that is where the perils of the engaging “we” and the catchy “Yes, we can” lie. Otherwise all these hard-nosed Europeans will hope and pray that the future President Obama isn’t really all that serious about the saving the world of tomorrow, the polar caps, Darfur and the poppy harvest over in Afghanistan.
George W. Bush is yesterday, the Texas version of the arrogant world power. Obama is all about today: the “everybody really just wants to be brothers and save the world” utopia. As for us, we who sometimes admire and sometimes curse this somewhat anemic, pragmatic democracy, we will have to quickly get used to Barack Obama, the new leader of a lofty democracy that loves those big nice words — words that warm our hearts and alarm our minds. Let’s allow ourselves to be warmed today, by this man at the Victory Column. Then we’ll take a further look.
** BERLIN ASSESSMENT. How did Berlin go for Barack Obama? Really well. Crowd of well over 200,000, according to the Berlin police, which makes it some three times larger than his previous record crowd of 75,000 in Portland during the Oregon primary in May.
Better yet, lots of Euros waving American flags. All to a pro-America/friendly yet challenging to Europe message, as you see from the full text below. (Full video tomorrow morning.)
Obama appeared unphased by the challenge, well in command of the stage, and happy to lead both the huge crowd and the global media through a narrative that positions America in a friendlier light but still insists that the world must stop Islamic jihadism in its tracks, as well as confront the challenge of global climate change.
Clearly a home run for Obama, as anticipated after he got through the mine fields of Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel with nary a scratch.
This is why the McCain campaign has been uptight all week — and I’ll have more in depth on that in a forthcoming column — and why folks we know over on the far right are laboring so vociferously to pick at nits and pretend that what obviously went very well was really a disaster.
Alternative reality novels and movies are a genre all their own.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in and around the state Capitol today in meetings, mostly around the tardy and chronically screwed-up state budget. Much of official Sacramento — in the government, political and journalistic circles — is very uptight about Schwarzenegger cutting state employee wages. I can assure you that average Californians don’t particularly care. And, as I told you yesterday afternoon, lay-offs appear to be in store as well. Maybe it’s time to get the budget going, folks.
Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger had to cancel out of his national infrastructure tour with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. There’s more to say on that.
** OBAMA BERLIN REMARKS — “A WORLD THAT STANDS AS ONE.”
Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world. I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father – my grandfather – was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning – his dream – required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life. That is why I’m here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.
Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof. On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade. This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.
The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.
And that’s when the airlift began – when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city. The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.
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!”
People of the world – look at Berlin!
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle. Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common security. Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity. People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.
Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall – a wall that divided East and West; freedom and tyranny; fear and hope – walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness has given rise to new dangers – dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.
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.
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.
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. In America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe’s role in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth – that Europeans today are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe.
Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more – not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.
That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.
We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.
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.
That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the moment when our nations – and all nations – must summon that spirit anew.
This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.
This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now.
This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era. This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons.
This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century – in this city of all cities – we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a partnership that extends across this entire continent.
This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is free and fair for all.
This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations – including my own – will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.
And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust – not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.
Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?
Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words “never again” in Darfur? Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don’t look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?
People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.
Those are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. Those aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of those aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of those aspirations that all free people – everywhere – became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of those aspirations that a new generation – our generation – must make our mark on history.
People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. Let us build on our common history, and seize our common destiny, and once again engage in that noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world.
** BERLIN. It’s taking half an hour for people to get through security to join the crowd for Barack Obama’s highly anticipated speech in Berlin on US-European relations. I’m expecting something of a tough love address, in which Obama challenges Germany, as the lynchpin of Western Europe, and the rest of the continent to step up on the challenge of Islamic jihadism in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and pledging America’s new role on climate change.
Berlin, of couse, is an enormous symbol of the Cold War, as well as rapprochement following the most brutal world war in history.
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit — who was apparently open to Obama speaking anywhere he wanted in this most international of cities, including the Brandenberg Gate venue which Chancellor Angela Merkel, perhaps prodded by the White House, balked at — had this gushing comment following his meeting with Obama. “He is a very charming and determined man, who has a vision for America and the whole world.”
The whole world? Hmm …
** OBAMA BERLIN SPEECH THIS MORNING. Barack Obama speaks in Berlin around 10 AM Pacific time. (That’s 7 PM in Germany.) The event will be available live on all cable news nets.
** CALIFORNIA: DEMOCRATIC PARTY FAR MORE POPULAR THAN REPUBLICAN PARTY. The new Field Poll shows that California voters are far more favorably inclined to Democrats than to Republicans.
54% of California voters have a positive impression of the Democratic Party. Only 31% of California voters have a positive impression of the Republican Party. This tracks very closely with Barack Obama’s lead over John McCain in California, which is 54% to 30%.
On a generic congressional ballot, the Democratic edge is 48% to 28%. This is interesting, because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s numbers in her own home state — she represents San Francisco — are decidedly down.
** MCCAIN TRIES TO COUNTER-PROGRAM A WAVE. You know, Obama’s new flood of foreign policy cred. Resulting in a somewhat confusing, rather sulky, kitchen sink approach. With full analysis of the two new anti-Obama attack ads, first of the general election. One is arguable. The other is preposterous. From my other blog.
John McCain is unhappy about the publicity over Barack Obama’s foreign tour.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Germany. He’s already met with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
John McCain is in New Albany and Columbus, Ohio.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil is trading now in the $125 to $126 per barrel range. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil closed down on Friday at $128.88 per barrel. The drop of over $20 per barrel came amidst multiple signs that the weak US economy will cut future demand and fresh signs of a rapprochement between the US and Iran.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
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| Comments (139) |
“I heard only a few snippets on KGO radio today”
Hap – sorry for the late chime in. You’re good folk and part of our crew.
You can see the full video of the Obama speech above. I missed the first part and it’s great. The part where he’s interrupted by the “tribesman” call is hilarious.
Wow. I think the Germans are right.
Uh-oh. lol
** “PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD.”
That sounds okay to me.
Gerhard Spörl wrote a great piece. Thanks for posting it.
You ain’t going to find anything like it on the 24 Hour News Beast.
[...] hat tip to Bill Bradley for this find. The analysis from Der Spiegel overlaps mine of earlier this week when I wrote that [...]
God, I hope so.
Mr. Obama goes from triumph to triumph.
Mr. McCain had his moment.
It is over.
[...] UPDATE: That’s the thinking in Germany, too: [...]
How long ’till McCain complains that the media conspiracy has now gone global?
Well, shoot …
Perhaps.
>Jonathan Hemlock:
Mr. Obama goes from triumph to triumph.
Mr. McCain had his moment.
It is over.
Jul 24, 2008 – 6:00 pm
Thanks.
A very dear old friend of mine, with her own agenda, insists that New West Notes should be New World Notes.
>Brasky:
Gerhard Spörl wrote a great piece. Thanks for posting it.
You ain’t going to find anything like it on the 24 Hour News Beast.
Jul 24, 2008 – 5:37 pm
Yeah … Maybe a little hubristic, or what have you.
>Ann:
Uh-oh. lol
** “PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD.”
Jul 24, 2008 – 5:28 pm
Not surprisingly …
>Capitol Boy:
Wow. I think the Germans are right.
Jul 24, 2008 – 5:25 pm
The whole Berlin speech will front NWN tomorrow morning.
>Brasky:
“I heard only a few snippets on KGO radio today”
Hap – sorry for the late chime in. You’re good folk and part of our crew.
You can see the full video of the Obama speech above. I missed the first part and it’s great. The part where he’s interrupted by the “tribesman” call is hilarious.
Jul 24, 2008 – 5:02 pm
Except, as I may have mentioned once or twice, the latter is a symbol who causes constant terrorist attacks to “liberate” him.
This is the entire history of such figures.
Bin Laden dead. That is the answer.
>Chris M:
Well, there’s a martyr whose dead body, half blown apart by bullets, is being jabbed at by US soldiers with bayonets, and then there’s a martyr who gets three solid daily meals delivered to his tiny, dark, often damp prison cell. One would admittedly better satisfy American appetites, one might play better to the next generation of Muslims.
>Bill Bradley:
Well, unless bin Laden goes free, he is a martyr no matter what, right?
Jul 24, 2008 – 4:57 pm
“Mr. McCain had his moment.”
no. not really.
but it is over i think.
and if McCain’s campaign wasn’t so worried about that possibility, they would have just let Obama’s trip go, without trying so hard to match Obama’s presence. (which, in ever instance pretty much, made McCain look desperate. — esp. the shopping stunt today. that was just sad.)
Not too long …
>Hap Hazard:
Right. It’s all in the text above – Oops, that didn’t take long
Jul 24, 2008 – 4:47 pm
You’re very welcome.
>Hap Hazard:
Thank you Bill, Carole and Solon..
Jul 24, 2008 – 4:46 pm
There’s more, as you’ll see in my forthcoming column. Which of course I have to finish writing … easier to be a TV guy.
I’ve got a top GOP strategist saying Mac should have gone on vacation this week.
>four waters:
“Mr. McCain had his moment.”
no. not really.
but it is over i think.
and if McCain’s campaign wasn’t so worried about that possibility, they would have just let Obama’s trip go, without trying so hard to match Obama’s presence. (which, in ever instance pretty much, made McCain look desperate. — esp. the shopping stunt today. that was just sad.)
Jul 24, 2008 – 6:30 pm
“Thanks. A very dear old friend of mine, with her own agenda, insists that New West Notes should be New World Notes.”
It’s unique because it doesn’t follow a cookie-cutter American meme (I keep coming back to “he is not only ambitious but will also make demands”) and it’s also exceptionally well written.
“I’ve got a top GOP strategist saying Mac should have gone on vacation this week.”
Smart guy. Very smart. Probably also recommends you go inside when a hurricane strikes and not golf in a lightning storm.
If McCain had gone dark, he could have gotten the media to give him a lot later for the Obama coverage this week. Plus, he just looked bad – really bad.
Both in substance and in campaigning, McCain is a profound disappointment. I’m not sure how much is him and how much is consulting – the choir is so off key, I can’t tell where all the bad notes are coming from.
does that mean i’ve got top GOP Strategist cred? : )
(huh, not likely. just seemed ver ver obvious.)
Well, you don’t have to be Dr. Manhattan to get that — quick, what is new pop culture reference you are likely to hear for next 8 months? — although it doesn’t hurt.
The client/principal often has his/her own imperatives.
Idiotic though they may be.
Oh, he’s a frakking genius …
>Brasky:
“I’ve got a top GOP strategist saying Mac should have gone on vacation this week.”
Smart guy. Very smart. Probably also recommends you go inside when a hurricane strikes and not golf in a lightning storm.
If McCain had gone dark, he could have gotten the media to give him a lot later for the Obama coverage this week. Plus, he just looked bad – really bad.
Both in substance and in campaigning, McCain is a profound disappointment. I’m not sure how much is him and how much is consulting – the choir is so off key, I can’t tell where all the bad notes are coming from.
Jul 24, 2008 – 6:56 pm
I assume you are referring to the Der Spiegel column rather than my old pal’s view of NWN …
>Brasky:
“Thanks. A very dear old friend of mine, with her own agenda, insists that New West Notes should be New World Notes.”
It’s unique because it doesn’t follow a cookie-cutter American meme (I keep coming back to “he is not only ambitious but will also make demands”) and it’s also exceptionally well written.
Jul 24, 2008 – 6:48 pm
Yep, either that or as Chuck Todd said, he could have worked a single state of his choice (say, Michigan) hard, beneath the radar.
There’s no way to compete with this.
>I’ve got a top GOP strategist saying Mac should have gone on vacation this week.
That’s for sure.
This was amazing speech. I wish Sen. Obama would come to Moscow this year.
I can guess what video today.
Not too hard.
There’s a good chance he’ll be in Moscow next year.
>sergei:
This was amazing speech. I wish Sen. Obama would come to Moscow this year.
Jul 25, 2008 – 3:23 am
Not without looking churlish and grasping.
>Chris M:
Yep, either that or as Chuck Todd said, he could have worked a single state of his choice (say, Michigan) hard, beneath the radar.
There’s no way to compete with this.
>I’ve got a top GOP strategist saying Mac should have gone on vacation this week.
Jul 24, 2008 – 8:46 pm
Hmm, nobody got the Dr. Manhattan reference …
>Bill Bradley:
Well, you don’t have to be Dr. Manhattan to get that — quick, what is new pop culture reference you are likely to hear for next 8 months? — although it doesn’t hurt.
long live the “big c”
great post
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