Obama’s speech in Berlin was the worst one I’ve ever seen him give. Bland, lifeless, with barely a memorable moment. I guess we’re going to see a lot more speeches like this till the Inauguration. Apparently Obama has to do foto ops to show us he’s capable of being a Commander in Chief, and at the same time not be so overweening as to try and upstage JFK and Reagan. Having won me and my progressive friends with his inspiring oratory, he’s now dropped it to try and capture the torpid center. He won’t take a risk between now and November. (By the way: I don’t understand why McCain doesn’t concede now. He’s about to get steamrolled by history. As Hillary was.)
The speech had one great moment, when Obama talked about all the walls falling around the world. I loved that. “The walls between Jews and Muslims,” he said in there. This man is a secret universalist. A patchwork himself, he’s going to lift us past tribe. His walls line had a specific and obvious resonance to the hateful separation wall that jogs through Palestine. What other wall is there right now? That’s the one. Some day, I pray, Obama will give that speech.
