Obama in Berlin: Walking the Walk

Even before the star arrives the event feels more like a rock concert than a speech. With people milling around sipping beer and two opening bands warming up the crowd the atmosphere is happy and relaxed.

Ironically, the bag-strapped legions of press, of which your correspondent is a bewildered member, are separated from the rest of the crowd by ... a wall. With the day getting hotter and hotter and limited space for movement, there is little for the reporters to do in the hours before Obama's speech but to loll around and try to interview people across the fence.

In the shade of a tent set up for the bigwigs of the traveling press corps I run into Lucas, a 21 year old German volunteer who is enjoying a sausage and a smoke.

He discovered Obama while visiting Iowa last summer, before his energizing win in the caucuses. "It's amazing how he can motivate people", he says. "If Merkel were speaking no one would be here."

"He's like a mixture between a politician and a spiritual leader", he adds.

I hunker down for some food next to a photographer from the Bild tabloid (Germany's New York Post) who says he'd be happy if Obama won but doesn't think rural America will vote for a black man. A TV cameraman sits down next to us with a piece of cake and complains that we're not allowed eating utensils because someone could get stabbed with a plastic fork.

As it gets within a half-hour of the speech, anticipation starts to build.

I notice a reporter from Politico. She has a shiny laminate press badge, which makes me slightly jealous. Mine is paper and already has a slight tear.

A man in an off-white suit approaches the podium and situates a bottle of water -- clearly an important signal.

The crowd gets very quiet.

People look around breathlessly, wondering where Obama will appear.

A dark helicopter hovers in place high above the Victory Column. Will he be arriving by parachute?

After a few long minutes the tension fades and the crowd begins to mutter. "Come oooon", groans a girl next to me.

And suddenly he's there.

Stepping down the bright blue catwalk with his long hand in the air and a smile on his face is the man of the hour, or at least of the next 27 minutes.

The speech is a brisk, affecting affair. There are big cheers when Obama talks about nuclear disarmament and dealing with climate change, while the crowd's response to "defeating terror" is noticeably muted, either because it's vocabulary clearly meant for the viewers in the United States or because of its implications for German troop commitments in Afghanistan, which the senator goes on to talk about. For the most part, however, he hits all the right notes.

Later, when the crowd begins to disperse I notice a scattering of individuals who didn't come to cheer: a few people with a sign protesting the death penalty, a woman wearing a "Troops out of Afghanistan" t-shirt and, of course, the guy with the McCain umbrella.

Nevertheless it's basically a love-fest, with occasional shouts of "I love you Obama!" from people near the front of the crowd. When Obama acknowledges that he doesn't look like the previous American presidents who have spoken in Berlin, a woman behind me murmurs "Better." It makes sense though, among an estimated 215,000 attendees, many of who are Americans, that those who waited hours to get near the podium would be of a particularly dedicated sort.

The cheering is energetic but not raucous. Even so, when Obama leaves the stage and descends for some face-time with the mortals, polite admiration transforms into wild enthusiasm. In fact, a stage-dive wouldn't have been out of place. As he reaches into the crowd people surge forward, yelling and jostling each other for the chance to photograph and touch him.

I talk to David, a former airman from Philadelphia who now lives in Europe. He's made the 600 kilometer trip from Munich to see Obama speak and wears a t-shirt that reads "The World for Obama 08'".

Why does he think people in Europe are so worked up by the whole Obama thing?

"Because they all witnessed the whole Bush thing."

Good point.

At a time when everyone is looking for something different, Obama emerges as the most contrasting choice. If Bush is oil, Obama is solar power. His charisma, his aura, are remarked on again and again by those I speak with, as is his ability to inspire. To his supporters Obama isn't just an agent of change - he's the 007 of change - strong, cool-headed, charming and capable - a leader, in other words.

After eight years of bridge-burning, arrogance and cultural illiteracy from the White House, people see Obama, and what they see is as straightforwardly and emblematically different as it gets. They see someone intelligent, internationalist and inspirational. They see someone different. The fact that he is, literally, a politician of a different color, only adds to the power of that impression.

No one knows what Obama will do in office if he is elected. No one knows how much change he'll bring or how effective he'll be. But we see how things have already changed -- when 200,000 people in a foreign city come to hear an American politician talk about unity and freedom-- we see how effective he already is.

Comments

[CologneCitizen]

We don't believe you defeat terror with an army. We have had more than enough terrorism in Europe. But to invade or bomb other countries is plain stupid. The slogan "war on terror" is plain stupid. It suggests it can be won which is stupid also. American officials have created such dumb mottos it is unbelievable. Reagan talked about an "evil empire", Bush about an "axis of evil" . Obviously the public needs some stupid motto where they can unite in the fight good vs. bad. Police or secret service forces can do somthing. The White House should have contacted police forces in England ( IRA terror ), Italy ( Brigate Rosso terror ), Spain ( ETA terror ) or Germany ( Rote Armee Fraktion terror ). You can reduce it, but I doubt you can erase it for good. Anyway, blowing you national treasure and wasting thousands of US and foreign lives on that stupid mission is one of the dumbest things the USA has managed to do in the recent past.

That's the reason why people in Berlin were not so keen to applaud Obama when he asks for more troops in Afghanistan.

[jstowe100]

They have every reason to be cynical towards our country's so-called commitment against terrorism. It is hard to say we are devoted against the axis of evil, while we and our corporations are in bed with the worldwide financial pipelines of terrorism.

If for nothing else, I'm grateful for Obama's Berlin speech because commentary on it directed me to the english version of Der Spiegel online. Refreshing, to hear a different viewpoint.

[AfricanusI]

"America please do not give up and do not allow cynicism to rule but rather dare to Hope big time. After all, you are on the treshold of change infinite not for your selves but the world at large. Please be proud we are looking up to you and so do relegate us to condemnation and hopelessness".

[Donnat]

The guy just oozes change and hope. His appeal transcends American politics, as this rally in Berlin clearly shows.

[openhand]

A person like Obama with so many facets acts on us in 2 ways.

It is hard for us to argue an us vs them line, instead its about WE.
Secondly he and Michele challenge just about all our chauvinisms forcing us to make change personal.

[openhand]

The point that this was an anti Bush rally detracts from both Obamas position &those that came to listen. Hillary might have got 20000 people at an anti Bush rally. What people see is an intersection of an 'improbable' person at a time of real crisis.

A Person who:
1. is black and white.
2. is from the U.S, Africa and Asia.
3. is from a single parent household and even a foster parent household.
4. is from Muslim and Atheist parents who chooses to be Christian but respects others.
5. is a husband and a father.
7. put himself through the top university in the country.
8. is young but has taken the time to write and reflect on his life.
9. went into the race out of principle rather than any real chance of success.
10. A person who managed to run a truly democratic campaign by using the latest technology making the voice of the individual voter more powerful than the special interest groups.
A politician who put his career on the line in questioning a war with no evidence.

All of this at a time of military, economic, and environmental crisis. At a time when we don't have the beacons of East against West or North against South. All of this at a time when people realise, consciously or not, that the forces that hold our world together are hypocritical, contradictory and not sustainable.

[ShaunHammer]

"Even before the star arrives the event feels more like a rock concert than a speech. (...) two opening bands warming up the crowd"

....? With two big German bands it just doesn't "feel" like a rock concert it WAS a rock concert, with a speech at the end.

"Obama leaves the stage and descends for some face-time with the mortals"

Does this assume Obama is not a mere mortal as you and I? Voters do not like being talked down to, and this sort of talk will only backfire. People will vote for someone who they would like to share a glass of wine with, not one who THINKS he could turn water into it.

[brooklyncitizen]

eyes rolling.

Obama is not seeking adulation.­....people are offering it.He far from talks down to people he actually talks to peopl as though they are mature and are capable of intellignet analysis such as in hdi speech on race which was unprecedented raw and honest.

[brighterside]

One thing about O is that he is a humble man. He will never say that people are mere mortals. Its not like him and I believe this is another one of those neocon spins.

What people like about O is that his just like everyone else. He doesn't look down on people and is a great people person.

If our leaders of our country would humble themselves just a little in comparison to O, this world would be a better place.

[ShaunHammer]

I think Obama is a nice guy. I was commenting on the way this piece was written. I found it funny, thats all.

[Dunsmuir]

As Americans are well aware, the greater part of the world is for Obama..Eight more years of a Bush clone cannot be tollerated. Whatever you do affects us, and Obama is the only way. Still, there is that niggling fear that McSame....­..........­.....

[Gia1]

Thanks for putting me in the moment. I can't even begin to fathom why Americans would not be proud of him for being so well recieved on his tour!

[fedupcitizen]

Just a thank you...perspective is everything.

The US and the world are ready to try a better way.

[MPeter]

Beautifully done. Thank you for a great analysis. It made us all proud to see the crowds and the cheers, especially American flags waved by happy people. All we have seen for the last eights have been barricades and demonstrations against the neocons and the crazies that hijacked our country.

[Anonani]

Senator Obama must be elected. I believe that the strength of our nation depends upon it as well as the faith of the people of the world that America can be a different place than we have been for the past 8 years. The world will not and the nation cannot tolerate the US deviating even further from its place in the world community.

Mr. Obama's time is now.

[castlerider]

The past 8 years are a perfect example of why Free-Market economics that began with Milton Friedman's Chicago school of economics that so many republicans and right-wingers have espoused and touted, practically as their "bible" to save capitalism and advance their idea of the American ideal, have been absolutely wrong and disastrous for this country.
This ideal, which like in Pinochet's Chile, states that it's OK to spy on, torture and even kill, yes, even your own citizens if needed, to SHOCK people and make them fall in line with fear.
Reagan shared these ideals with deregulation, Thatcher busted up unions, but it's now become fully loosed by Bush's administration in their grandiose War on Terror, where Doug Feith stated that the Geneva Convention laws should not apply to the prisoners in this war, -Where insistence on wiretapping is so surreal.

Very much of the educated world thinks otherwise. They know torture. They know what this corrupt administration is up to, and are rightly disgusted with it. They know that when all the veil's removed, the prime motivator behind all this is GREED. Greed from a facsist styled government with ideals this administration arrogantly links itself, & in the end, wants to control people.

Small wonder it 's so refreshing for them to see a candidate like Obama, who they can see does not espouse these ideals, and welcome him.

Get a clue, people. It's not necessarily Obama these people look up to and love so much, it's America.

[castlerider]

The past 8 years are a perfect example of why Free-Market economics that began with Milton Friedman's Chicago school of economics that so many republicans and right-wingers have espoused and touted, practically as their "bible" to save capitalism and advance their idea of the American ideal, have been absolutely wrong and disastrous for this country.
This ideal, which like in Pinochet's Chile, states that it's OK to spy on, torture and even kill, yes, even your own citizens if needed, to SHOCK people and make them fall in line with fear.
Reagan shared these ideals with deregulation, Thatcher busted up unions, but now it's become fully loosed by Bush's administration in their grandiose War on Terror, where Doug Feith stated that the Geneva Convention laws should not apply to the prisoners in this war, -Where insistence on wiretapping is so surreal.

Very much of the educated world thinks otherwise. They know torture. They know what this corrupt administration is up to, and are rightly disgusted with it. They know that when all the veil's removed, the prime motivator behind all this is GREED. Greed from a facsist styled government with ideals this administration arrogantly links itself, & in the end, wants to control people.

Small wonder it 's so refreshing for them to see a candidate like Obama, who they can see does not espouse these ideals, and welcome him.

Get a clue, people. It's not necessarily Obama these people look up to and love so much, it's America.

[metivo]

Great post! The only thing is I find myself holding back from really falling for this guy. Why? Because I'm afraid he won't be elected. I'm protecting myself against serious heartbreak if that happens. The US has shown itself just stupid enuff to not vote him in. I know, it sounds incredible, but I'm convinced the election will be VERY close. It is so important that we all get out the vote in Nov. to insure his victory.

[several]

Let cynicism go. Dare to hope. :-)

[tedbear]

My sentiments are the same. The only thing I can think of to do is work to get him elected.
If everyone who wants him to win gets out there and works at it there is a chance. If everyone sits back and assumes someone else is doing the leg work, his chance diminishes.
There are alot of people in this country who are afraid of change, afraid of blacks, afraid of terror, etc. We know that because the people of this country have been manipulated by fear by the Bush administration for eight long, long years. When you get poll numbers that show the majority of people "trust" McCain as a leader more than they trust Obama, you have to think hard about what you are willing to do to get Obama elected. Do it! Get involved today!

[metivo]

I've given $$$ which is something I've never done before for any candidate. But you are right about getting more involved . . . I think I'll check out the website and see what sorts of things I may be able to do.

[gigi09]

I picked up a stack of voter's regitration cards at the Post Office, keep them with me. When I see young adults at McDonald's or the grocery store, etc...I ask them if they are proud of Obama...their eyes light up with a positive respond...then I ask...are you registered to vote? If not I give them a card and get them to promise to fill it out and mail it! Let's make this happen...YES WE CAN!