As Barack Obama completes his foreign policy visit travel to Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, and Europe, one of the most public activity was the public speech delivered in Berlin, Germany.
Never before has an American presidential candidate presented such a public address in a foreign country (may be the candidates have spoken to Chambers of Commerce but not to the public at large in the manner that Senator Barack Obama did.)
There are several observations with regard to this speech –
(1) The speech was and is still fraught with potential political dangers and pitfalls. Would the American electorate find the speech presumptuous or find it attractively reassuring? We do not know the answer to this yet — definitively. But the early indications are promising for Obama. Per Rasumssen reports, about 55 percent of the electorate thought that the speech was good or excellent. The tracking polls by Rasmussen and Gall Up appear to show a baby bounce in preference measure the day after, i.e., Friday, the speech.
(2) Barack Obama’s speech was comprehensive (in the topics) that it addressed — U.S.-Europe relationship, NATO alliance, Afghanistan and Iran, terrorism, environment, violence in Darfur, AIDS and more — and therefore, it was a bit of a a laundry list and lacked as much substance (it was not wonkish) but that approach also provided an opportunity not to get bogged down.
(3) Barack Obama’s speech was more aspirational and inspirational than prescriptive, and that was politically and diplomatically safe. Obama achieved this by by fusing an older tradition of American magnanimity with a more contemporary emphasis on multilateralism, which he called “partnership”.
(4) Barack Obama showcased America and his patriotism. He was fierce in his defense of American interests, and and made it plain any partnership would come with a price. “We must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it”, he declared. “Iran…must abandon its nuclear ambitions.”
(5) Barack Obama sounded tough — real tough — and not much different from President Bush, and Obama’s world was fraught with the terror and genocide and by global warming. But Obama’s rhetoric was soaring and one of his solutions was a “co-operative” approcah that tears down the walls of tyranny, and divisions cause by religions, tribes and classes.
In sum, Obama pulled off a very successful speech. He has done this twice now — first, when talking about Race in Philadelphia and then now when talking about the global partnerships in Berlin.
Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Berlin, Gall Up, Germany, Iran, Iraq, John McCain, Rasmussen Reports
