Obama’s Reagan Moment
He passed a test in Berlin, but harder ones await.
Louisa Thomas
NEWSWEEK
Jul 26, 2008
Berlin has long been a testing ground for American statesmen. In 1963 John F. Kennedy faced the challenge of how to address the recently erected Berlin wall, and the people whom it encircled. Twenty-four years later, Ronald Reagan knew he had to adopt a tough public stance against the Soviets while quietly negotiating with them. Both passed their tests, delivering speeches that would forever associate them with Berlin. More important, the speeches prepared the ground for their later actions. What they said mattered; what they did mattered more.
When Barack Obama arrived in Berlin last week, he stepped into their shadows. Kennedy was the obvious and easy comparison, but Obama is also clearly conscious of the parallels to Reagan. As the press and hundreds of thousands gathered to watch the Democrat speak on Thursday, his words reverberated down the long avenue toward the Brandenburg Gate, where Reagan, too, promised to change the world, back in the summer of 1987.
More than a hundred thousand people came out to hear Kennedy. The occasion was tense—only two years before, the Soviets had erected the wall in little more than a day. The Berliners' situation seemed tenuous, fragile. Kennedy's speech reassured them. When he spoke those famous lines in his flat Boston accent—"Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich bin ein Berliner"—the roar was so tremendous that even the unflappable Kennedy seemed overwhelmed. "I—uh, I—I appreciate—I appreciate my interpreter translating my German," he said, and the crowd roared again.
Reagan spoke to a much smaller audience. Only about 20,000 gathered to watch him—4,000 fewer than had marched in protest against the U.S. president's visit the night before, smashing up windows and cars. Opposed by leftists in Berlin, only hundreds of meters from a hostile foe, Reagan was unbending: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate," he said. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Even some of Reagan's aides were embarrassed by the "tear down this wall" line, thinking it was too provocative or grandiose. But Reagan understood stagecraft, and the fall of the wall two and a half years later made his words prescient. That is the stage that Reagan sought—history, not necessarily the next day's paper.
(Continued here.)
Louisa Thomas
NEWSWEEK
Jul 26, 2008
Berlin has long been a testing ground for American statesmen. In 1963 John F. Kennedy faced the challenge of how to address the recently erected Berlin wall, and the people whom it encircled. Twenty-four years later, Ronald Reagan knew he had to adopt a tough public stance against the Soviets while quietly negotiating with them. Both passed their tests, delivering speeches that would forever associate them with Berlin. More important, the speeches prepared the ground for their later actions. What they said mattered; what they did mattered more.
When Barack Obama arrived in Berlin last week, he stepped into their shadows. Kennedy was the obvious and easy comparison, but Obama is also clearly conscious of the parallels to Reagan. As the press and hundreds of thousands gathered to watch the Democrat speak on Thursday, his words reverberated down the long avenue toward the Brandenburg Gate, where Reagan, too, promised to change the world, back in the summer of 1987.
More than a hundred thousand people came out to hear Kennedy. The occasion was tense—only two years before, the Soviets had erected the wall in little more than a day. The Berliners' situation seemed tenuous, fragile. Kennedy's speech reassured them. When he spoke those famous lines in his flat Boston accent—"Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is Ich bin ein Berliner"—the roar was so tremendous that even the unflappable Kennedy seemed overwhelmed. "I—uh, I—I appreciate—I appreciate my interpreter translating my German," he said, and the crowd roared again.
Reagan spoke to a much smaller audience. Only about 20,000 gathered to watch him—4,000 fewer than had marched in protest against the U.S. president's visit the night before, smashing up windows and cars. Opposed by leftists in Berlin, only hundreds of meters from a hostile foe, Reagan was unbending: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate," he said. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Even some of Reagan's aides were embarrassed by the "tear down this wall" line, thinking it was too provocative or grandiose. But Reagan understood stagecraft, and the fall of the wall two and a half years later made his words prescient. That is the stage that Reagan sought—history, not necessarily the next day's paper.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
Is Obama an anti-semite? At his speech on July 24, 2008 in Berlin, Germany, he neglected to mention the terror attacks that have occurred in Israel due to Iranian proxy armies - Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south - and not to mention the PLO and other acts of terror.
Just a mere 24 hours after spending part of the day in Sderot, Israel, Obama talked of terror attacks in Bali, London, Madrid, Amman, New York and Washington, DC, but didn't even make mention to the countless and seemingly endless acts of terror that occur in Israel.
Either he intentionally speaks out both sides of his mouth to placate the audience he is an anti-semite. How can someone running for President of the United States fail to make mention the acts of terror in the country that has seen the most terrorism - Israel?
God help America should Obama become President. Our enemies and the enemies of Israel will only be emboldened by a President Obama who won't stand with Israel in defiance of terrorism.
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