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Obama at the Brandenburg Gate & German Politics

Der Spiegel has another update on Obama’s hopes for a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Barack Obama wants to hold a speech at the Brandenburg Gate when he comes to Berlin later this month. The city’s mayor wants to grant him his wish, but the German chancellor has misgivings.

The warning from the Chancellery was clear: The Brandenburg Gate is the “most famous and history-rich location in Germany,” a Chancellery source said on Monday. In the past, it has only been used on very special occasions for addresses by politicians, and when, then only by elected American presidents. More clearly stated: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would be better off looking for another location in the German capital to hold a speech.

But Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit appeared unimpressed by the warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and said during a press conference on Tuesday that he would be pleased if Obama were to address the public at the Brandenburg Gate.

“We are not ruling anything out,” a spokesman for the Berlin city council told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “The Brandenburg Gate would certainly be a nice place.” The local government also pointed out that the decision over where Obama should make his appearance was in the hands of the city council of Berlin and not the chancellor’s office or the federal government.

In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, an Obama adviser confirmed that the Brandenburg Gate would be the Democratic candidate’s top choice for the location of a speech on trans-Atlantic relations. (more…) It would be a “simply great” backdrop, the adviser said. After all, the source added, John F. Kennedy’s famous appearance outside the Schöneberg Town Hall in 1963 was still very much alive in people’s memories.

Some suspect Mayor Wowereit’s remarks may be self-serving. Jürgen Trittin, deputy floor leader of The Green Party in the German parliament, predicted that Obama would end up speaking at the Brandenburg Gate. “Do you think that Wowereit would miss the chance to appear alongside Barack Obama,” he asked an interviewer on the German news channel N24. “I believe Wowereit is thinking: ‘He should appear, I will come into the picture and everything will be great’.”

Here is the issue, Chancellor Merkel leads a very popular German government and she is a member of the conservative CDU party. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit is a member of the very unpopular SDP party that is polling under 20%. The mayor wants to tap into Obama’s popularity to lift his own.

From my blog, By The Fault.

  • Uña de Gato

    It’s comforting to see Obama export his special brand of divisiveness to our allies overseas.

  • http://www.withoutparty.com Alix

    God forbid that man make a speech there. I’ll barf if he decides to stay at the Adlon.

  • Hope

    Anyone else tired of dealing with Obama’s propoganda? His staged events are as empty as his rhetoric and character.
    Let me guess, they’ll hold a major performance there at the same time, pay people to faint on cue, and tell the public the masses are swooning at Obamessiah’s feet again..too bad those numbers do not appear in the voting booth (especially if you remove the dead voters and pets).

  • pm317

    Yep, that is his magical touch — the divider not the uniter or is it divide and conquer?

  • http://www.withoutparty.com Alix

    If he wants a big crowd, he ought to go to Olympia Stadium.
    The area in front of the Gate is too damn small for his taste anyway.

  • PragmatismRules

    obama = hitler how appropos that he’s making a bee-line to germany

  • http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com Sugar

    When does it end?!!! If Merkel lets him speak in front of that gate she’s a fool.

  • RJ

    Does moveon.org have a eurpoean branch? If they send the “regulars” from America, the “let’s make it look like the great one is attracting many supporters to his rallies but it’s really just us busing in people from all over to make it look that way” crowd, it’s going to cost lots and lots.

    WE WILL REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER

    McCain ’08 (no matter who the dem VP is)

    or Hillary (if the dems wise up and realize she should be the nominee)

  • http://firefox AnnieCarmel

    The Obamas are simply obsessed with JFK and Jackie. Is he going to mimic JFK’s speech or reference it? How inappropriate. They couldn’t be more opposite. Maybe they are trying to associate themselves with all things Kennedy because they have no culture or class of their own and hope to hijack the Kennedy legacy. Good luck, sows ear. There’s no way you have the polish, manners or style of JFK or RFK. You aren’t even a good imitation.

    My God, I can’t wait until they are defeated and sent back to their little life with the Chicago thugs.

  • http://www.http://unityindiversity-spiritedpolitics.blogspot.com jm

    think there is a deeper issue to the malevolent one’s trip, beyond this speech. saw on his official website last month: “Don’t think because you are not American, you don’t have a vote in this election.” Posted on a new page called Global Outreach.

    Had to rub my eyes and reread – yes that is what it said. Then saw a thread mentioning they saw an obama campaign employment ad looking for “foreign language speaking staff.”

    So, went back to the dark hole of his pretty website (re you don’t have to be American to have a vote in this election – and, no, it did not say “to have a say or to have an opinion” – IT SAID “A VOTE”. Guess what?

    The statement was gone, vanished! Just like the Presidential fakeseal. Just like the opening statement of Kids for Obama – which said “studies have proven that children can influence the votes of their parents and older siblings.”

    Now the KIDS statement has been rewritten and the Global vote statement has vanished. What remained, as of last week, was the posting there looking for foreign language translators. (Yes, it is strange it does not specify what language(s).

    Clear there is a hidden agenda in all this: What is more important than adult American citizen’s votes to this ODM (as in Kenya) campaign? GETTING EVERYBODY ELSE, from the under-12 yr. old set to all available foreigners to PUT PRESSURE ON AMERICAN VOTERS.

    Point: it’s no distraction that bo is going overseas and looking for historic sites to desecrate with his lying mouth and soulless brain and heartless form – He intends to progagandize anywhere and everywhere – especially, always, with the young ( a la Hilter, a la Mao, a la Odinga) – to pressure-cook this election to go his way.

    You know, we’ve gotten it enough here from the trolls – geez, everybody just loves him, what’s wrong with you. And should he lose at any point – fair and square- from the convention through the election, his next strategy:

    RIGGED ELECTION! BAD DEMOCRATS BAD REPUBLICANS BAD USA! final steps:

    RIOTS EVERYWHERE his dirty feet have soiled the earth. any who still say this guy is just crooked, or only an opporunist or merely power-driven had better look again. the anti-christ has arrived. he thrives on divisiveness in all forms, violence at any pretense (whether verbal or physical but always discreetly), evasion is his game and DENIAL his middle name.

    this comment coming from a non-churchgoing, former democratic liberal.

  • Untilthelastdogdies

    What’s next?

    Has his campaign contacted The Queen to arrange a speech from the balcony of Buckingham Palace??

    A parade down the Champs-Ellyse?

    The man is just too much!

  • Uña de Gato

    An impassioned aria from the balcony of the Casa Rosada perhaps?

  • Larse12

    I tell you that guy is not in his right mind. I am embarrassed just looking or reading anything about him. Our boy is an officer in the Marines and they laugh about him. They think he is quite the wanna be boy.

  • Prem

    Chancellor Angela Merkel seems smart and tuned in—remember her apparent disgust at GWB’s “massage”! Let’s hope she sticks by her regard of the Brandenburg Gate as someplace that should be reserved for truly historic global events. BO does not even have the official Dem. Pres. nomination as yet, not until August at the Dem. convention if that even happens. Maybe we should email her—I’m going to try to find her or Der Spiegel’s email. Let’s write letters in protest of that location for BO’s speech.

  • Prem

    I got this off of her website and here is a website where you can email her:
    http://www.bundeskanslerin.de/Webs/BK/EN/Service/Contact/contact.html_nnn=true

    I just emailed her and told her I supported her decision about not approving of BO’s speech taking place at the Brandenburg. I wrote that he is not even the official Dem. Pres. candidate yet and that there is a growing concern about his experience and qualifications here in the USA, and that there are many Americans who do not support his candidacy.

    Here’s Merkel’s mailing address and phone number:
    Call the Federal Government’s Bürgertelefon on +49 (0)180 272 00 00 at local call rate when calling from Germany.
    Mondays to Thursdays 8 am to 4.30 pm
    Fridays from 8 am to 3 pm.

    Postal Adress:
    Bundeskanzleramt
    Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel
    Willy-Brandt-Straße 1
    10557 Berlin

  • no waffles aka drkate

    If he does do this, it will convince all europeans that obama doesn’t care about protocol, he’ll do what he wants for himself. go ahead, bambi, embarass america some more, why don’t you. but actually, show europe what an egomaniac he is.

  • SJ

    What the hell is wrong with Obama, he is not president he is just running in this election, why does everything have to be such a big affair?

    This is embarrassing, all this grandstanding one would think there is not another candidate in this race, I really don’t know why people is not reminding this man that the election is not over.

    I really feel sorry for McCain all this big show by Obama and the media just going along and not one of them is talking about the dam principle of this thing, let the election be over and if Obama wins and he wants to make a speech on the moon well fine, but until then for god sakes what is all this show boating about?

  • Zeke

    Perhaps he’ll attempt walking the Sea of Galilee.
    He might be able to do it, most forms of poop float.
    It will all come down to balance.
    How long can a turd float on end?
    And does he have to change his name to “Bob?”

  • http://www.withoutparty.com Alix

    Here is the contact page for Klaus Wowereit, the mayor of Berlin. Apparently he has more power in deciding if Obama can use the Brandenburg Gate area to make his barf inducing speech.

    http://www.klaus-wowereit.de/service/kontakt/

  • Zeke

    I never attended that self empowerment dude, Tony Robinson, but doesn’t he teach that you start as though it was a done deal? This could be some simplistic shit he picked up on a weekend party/er/Seminar.

  • NoObamislamists
  • Zeke

    He might count as one of Hal Lindsay’s False Prophets but he doesn’t have good enough game to be the real deal. The real dude will fart and EVERYONE will want to bottle it. Barry has trouble keeping the same bus driver.
    “That being said,” he hedged quickly, “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.”

  • MaryPat

    This is all very calculated…his acting like he is already President.

    Very creepy. The man is a megalomaniac.

  • JozefAL

    Maybe Obama could request to schedule a special Senate Foreign Relations Sub-committee hearing while he’s there?
    If he makes a campaign speech in Berlin, that’ll be the most he’s done to have ANY connection with his Senate job.

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    this is like a bad movie script…

    obama needs to explain his lies and flip flops and criminal relationships to americans….

    in america…

    why is he going to europe? to continue the obama show to try and distract the media and americans from the real issues….

    reading from a teleprompter more plaugerised speeches doesn’t make one a great leader… but a great pawn for axlerod and daley and the chicago political crime family…

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    great point!

    but that would mean real work and responsibility as opposed to lying to amercians and cheap applause from victims he’s duped or paid off…

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    i hear he is coming to london this friday?

    since i am here at the moment, anyone want to join me for a protest?

    i need some ideas on signs/banners…

    so far i have:

    1. Stealing votes is not presidential!

    2. Count my vote!

    any other ideas?

  • Hope is the last to die

    I still think he should make a speech at Auschwitz instead. It’s more poignant and has a special meaning for Obama. His uncle liberated it after all.

  • EyesOpen

    All of these ‘symbolic’ choices for speech locations seem to just backfire for our Messiah – the race speech in Philly, unity in Unity, self awarded presumptious nomination in Montana. And now, he goes overseas – not to intellectually engage in global issues but to create another speech spectacle. All in the name of ego; an ego that is again is dividing and now on an international level. Can’t you just do your job and be a Presidential candidate?

  • http://deleted AnninCa

    I proposed months ago that he’ll be the photo-op president if he wins. That’s all he is interested in being. He’s a do-nothing.

  • Florence

    I was thinking that, too. Isn’t he supposed to bring people together? Now he has the Germans divided, like he divided the Democratic party.

  • DAB

    Sounds like another incarnation of that hokey Presidential Seal that he temporarily “tried out”.

  • DAB

    I agree, very heavy handed — actually now that I think of it, more like beating you over the head with it.

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    do you think he’ll take his toy presidential seal with him to europe?

    hah ha ha….

    what a desperate and pathetic criminal…

    remember all those people that were on those cable news shows who couldn’t actually give an example of Baracktracks accomplishments yet were blathering stupidities about how great he is?

    has any of them come up with an answer yet? nope…

    time for another photo op and a plagerised speech…

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    here is one:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWjJFq5azXM

    lets follow up and see if this clown has an answer yet?

    ah ha ha ha

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    and these morons…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzFOOcEQtP0

    tee hee…

    are the actors or incredibly stupid or cult members?

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    and here is the senator again, this time un-edited:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGeu_4Ekx-o

    i’ve never heard the tv crew laughing at the lame ass person on one of these news shows before… wow! breathtaking…

    so, he finally comes up with Baracktrack is inspiring…. well, he is so inspiring that he has done ZERO for america…

    can you believe that?

    oh deear….

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    is that Chris Mathews?

    i say we petition him to get that senator back on and see if he has an answer yet….

    tee hee… of course he would have to play the last interview on air again which would be hilarious…

    anyone know the best way to reach him or make this request to his show?

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • RIChris

    Obama has the Germans divided now, and we know what happened the LAST time they divided. This time we’ll be hearing from Obama “Mr. Mayor, put up a wall!!”

  • believe

    Auschwitz is in Poland, not Germany.

    And Buchenwald was a truly terrible place. As a Jew, I can tell you that no Jew gives a whit that Obama mixed up the names. Buchenwald was where Patten and Eisenhower visited to give witness to the atrocities of the Holocaust.

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    ah, someone posted this in another thread…

    perhaps this could be Baracktrack’s lone accomplishment?

    Here’s a shocking one.
    Obama’s presidential campaign is supported by investment banks tied to the market speculation of oil prices

    Obama’s presidential campaign is supported by investment banks tied to the market speculation of oil prices GOP Senator Richard Lugar with Barack Obama in Russia 2005.
    Lugar anchored a bill that enabled wall street investment banks to manipulate the price of oil and other commodities. Now Obama has interviewed him for the position of secretary of state.
    http://www.thecityedition.com/Pages/Archive/Summer08/BushThirdTerm.html

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • nancysabet

    yes, he is such an arragont baster.

  • nancysabet

    Only difference is that European have gone through all this nonsence and they know what kind of idiot he is and will not fall for him, they probabley laughing to this idiocy.

  • nancysabet

    Hussien Obama must be stopped, he scares me.

  • nancysabet

    With all these, I believe people will prevail, Obama will loose the election big time. But we can not just wait to see that happens, we have a lot of work to do.

  • nancysabet

    Here is one, Hillary, people’s nominee

  • http://mmb silverfox

    obama is just a pawn in a much bigger game. albeit, a very willing pawn. he could speechify anywhere he is told to go and it would still be a counterfeit event.

    his purpose is as a hollywood type distraction, a red herring, a duplicitous manchurian puppet.

    enough people are figuring out that something is terribly amiss. still, many are not.

    the elite dems and the rest of the crooks will try every trick in the book to complete the obama coup. (i always wear my tin hat when i mention the obama coup, and keep it handy for any further perusal along the information highway)

    taking off the tin hat, i say very strongly and without shame as a former democrat….

    we need to get very strongly behind a John McCain presidency. no room for error here.

    i’m not a republican plant, merely an observer of the undermining of Democracy by factions within the “democratic” party, and party hopping big biz republicans. there is a definite blurring of parties going on. that is why i am putting country before party.

    i’m an American who greatly values being in this country above anywhere else in the world.; my respect for the Constitution that guides us is paramount.

    i can’t even believe that this is me saying this. i never payed that much attention before this election cycle…mainly because i sensed that the whole potus election thing was always manipulated and rigged. now i know it beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is rigged.

    may i say that we are not amused.

    in the elite wing of the obama camp resides an abysmal group of swindlers and traitors.

    we know who many of them are, but the big fish are well under the radar.

    the sub-group of the obama camp is made up of several factions: all the happily misled and brainwashed trolls, the just basically ignorant and highly manipulated folks who refuse to be wrong about their saviour, the sadly bamboozled african americans, the bought off and/or threatened super delegates, and many folks who went for the oblah way back when, and just have been too busy or distracted to catch up on the real skinny.

    what an unholy turn of events this election cycle has become. and it’s far from over.

    i am deeply grateful for NoQuarter, and all the awake bloggers and organizations that are wildly proliferating right now in the bold intent to bring truth to the American people.

    i’ve been reading Sen McCain’s account of his years as a POW in Hanoi after his plane was shot down and he ejected, landing with broken arm, broken leg, mangled wrist, other fractured body parts, and then was dragged off and beaten and tortured relentlessly by his captors. i recommend you all take a closer look at this officer’s ordeal and his experiences in one of the most brutal situationsone can imagine. his book, “Faith of My Fathers” in the last chapters, offers a personal account of the men he was imprisoned with, and the physical and mental brutality that was endured in what is known as The Hanoi Hilton. the spirit and comraderie, under threat of torture ,through which these men survived should not be overlooked. John McCain really is a patriot, as were all of his fellow POW’s.

    War and it’s spoils are not taken lightly by Sen John McCain. no matter what the media may spin, and the obamacans might be slinging.

    i would not hesitate to trust John McCain to look after the best interests of this country, and the Democracy that he and so many sacrificed for. and continue to sacrifice for.

    John McCain has more integrity and honor than barack obama could ever even dream of having. and that goes double for the slime that handles him

    . John McCain loves this country. barack obama is a man without a country.
    who would you trust?

    obama and “friends” are not friends to the majority of American citizens.

    my vote and support is readily comitted to Sen McCain if Hillary continues to be shut down by the eliite DNC..

    there is no threat that compares with an obama potus. nothing more frightening, or threatening to our Democracy than an obamocracy.

    apologies for the longwinding wordage.

    let freedom ring.

  • Annie Oakley

    Interesting link. The first and last fact to know about Obama is that he is of, by and for the bankers (aka the Haves and Have Mores). Whether it’s mortgage fraud, bailing out “investment” bankers at the expense of the economy or running another Enron scam in oil, when all the flip-flopping is done, he never met a profiteer he didn’t like.

    Now four of those banks have surfaced as players in the scheme to vault the cost of crude to over $140 a barrel. By utilizing their tremedous monetary reserves, they’ve purchased massive quantities of oil futures on the London stock exchange through a subsidiary called ICE Futures. As in the case of rice and other global food commodities, this hoarding has generated a shortage on paper, thereby driving up prices.

    Pretty clever, huh? Also coldblooded. It’s similar to what Enron did to California in 2000. By ordering power plants offline to create rolling blackouts, Ken Lay’s company could charge the state inflated rates to buy electricity from other plants. That same year, a piece of legislation was slipped into an 11,000 page appropriation bill to set up this scam. Sponsored by Senator Richard Lugar, the rider was called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. And by some coincidence, one of the two firms responsible for Ice Futures, Goldman Sachs, places first on Obama’s money bags list (again) for 2008. Its executives, employees and spouses have donated $571,000. So far.

  • Annie Oakley

    Oh, and love the picture of him with Lugar. He looks very comfortable in that role, no?

  • MIDem

    I agree.

    Country before party.

    NObama ever

  • http://NoteToSelfDontDie.com/members/ gerard nedich

    amen brother!

    a. hillary
    b. mccain

    america first!

  • Hope is the last to die

    He didn’t mix up names. His great uncle was in the navy. Unless his ship could fly I doubt he liberated any jews.

  • agent77

    Would Obama risk angering the German government just to get the best “backdrop” for yet another ‘historic speech”?

    PS==== good thing his speeches are all historic because it is all he has, and if you’ll notice, its the only achievement anyone references about him including Obama himself.

  • LuigiDaMan

    We need a contest here where we can pick great “backdrops” for the Precious to desecrate. I’m thinking:

    1. From the Space Station

    2. Call in congress and he can pontificate for a 30-second ad that will look like he’s giving his first “State of the Union” message. He can label it the “State of Obama” speech.

    Others?

  • agent77

    Gerard

    The KEY PROTEST

    How: hold you key ring in your hand, and if you want shake it above your head.

    Why: the symbolism is multiple:
    1. McCain was tortured in his Viet prison and he would hear the rattle of the guards keys as they came to torture him. McCain is afraid of the key sound and since Obama has been downing McCain’s service–the key protest shows the difference between McCain’s true courage and testing and
    Obama’s lack of courage and character

    2. “Hillary is the KEY to world peace as it relates to USA’s interaction with the world. She is no-nonsense and capable. She does not waiver and between her and Bill, it will be ok–she is KEY

    3. Think of your own reason…

    Benefits: Easy to transport, legal to carry, they can’t id you before you protest and just think if you are picked to sit behind him as ‘backdrop’ you can protest him without saying a word on live tv

  • melusine08

    UPDATE: Brandenburg Gate – The Saga Continues

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,565080,00.html

  • AnnFurthermore

    What’s the problem? Bill Clinton also gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1994 and everyone thought it was a great idea. It’s a symbol of unification because it links East Germany to West Germany and became famous after the Berlin Wall was torn down. Why is it OK for Bill Clinton to give a speech at the same location, but people freak out when Obama does the same thing? Face it – Bush & Merkel (his conservative buddy) don’t want anyone seeing how popular Obama is on the international stage.

    Find an issue that sticks, but since Bill Clinton did the same thing Obama is doing, you’re just making yourselves look ignorant of the facts.

  • scorbs

    People who think Obama is going to improve the country’s image abroad are in for a rude awakening. If George Bush’s smugness bothers world leaders, wait till they interact with Obama.

    Any wagers? Just give it time.

  • You are no JFK, Obamoron

    How Embarrassing for the country to have an unofficial presidential candidate push his way to a famous city’s stage, not having a clue as to the significance of the divisive turmoil he’s causing between the low-polling mayor and the hugely popular leader Angela Merkel, and to demand he gets full theatre credits!

    SHAMEFUL! For an immature, flip-flopping, empty suit like Barry, this is another low of lows! No appreciation of PROTOCOL means no respect for foreign relations and he is viewed as a country bumpkin…typical American image to Europeans who think of ‘braggarts’ and ‘flashy dressers’….He’s gonna give Americans a badder name!

    What a clueless jerk, our OBAMBI is!

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