This past week President Obama gave another speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. You might remember the first speech he gave there in 2008 as a candidate, he spoke in front two hundred thousand people his first time there. This time less than five thousand appeared to listen to him.
In keeping with the theme of the past few months, the reviews of his speech have been mostly negative.
Instead of a groundbreaking candidate making his grand appearance on the world stage, he is a floundering president awash in scandals. As the president’s fortunes fade, he is subjected to ridicule not just from the conservative side of politics, but also from the very people who so ardently supported him during his sunnier days. I do amuse myself by reading their reviews of his most recent speech, deriding it as hopelessly idealistic, vague and outdated. His new detractors would like to act as if it is a recent development that the president is at a loss for words that mean anything.
Putting the text of his two speeches side by side and you will find nearly the same speech preaching the same ideals. Ending war, sickness, poverty, global warming, nuclear weapons and spreading prosperity via government mandate. While some of these may be worthy goals, the world has grown weary of Obama’s attempted leadership, which amounts to nothing more than cheerleading.
Nothing has changed between his two speeches; he is the same man, speaking the same words with the same passion. However the belief that he will or can actually do anything substantial about these problems has evaporated. Instead of the boy that cried wolf, we have the president that preached salvation.
Obama and his people have been fixated on creating an image of Obama that conjures up notions of greatness. By speaking at the Brandenburg Gate he likens himself to Reagan and Kennedy, his train ride to Washington after his election presumed he was the second coming of Lincoln. Unfortunately for Obama, he has succeeded in creating the comparison between himself and the great American leaders. The comparison is not favorable to the president. While he may follow in their footsteps and speak their words, he fails to emulate their actions.
We remember the great words of our former leaders, but only in the context of their actions. Lincoln spoke of freedom from slavery and undertook a frightful war to achieve it. Kennedy asked the world be brave enough to challenge Communism and did so himself. Reagan decided to prove that the USSR was a fraud waiting to be toppled and did so. Their words were not idealistic wishes or theorizing, they did not speak of things they wished to accomplish, but something they were going to achieve, come hell or high water.
The current president is dealing with the most difficult time of his presidency to date, instead of turning into the wind and facing the scandals around him, he is giving speeches in Germany about nuclear war.
Categories: Blog Posts
Stovepipe Sentinel 
Couldn’t believe he gave a speech on nuclear weapons. That’s so 1970s.