Mr. Obama Goes To Europe

Recall those pictures from last July as candidate Barack Obama strode like a mighty colossus across Europe, regaling up to 200,000 screaming fans with his never-defined promises of change and with paid rock bands brought in to entertain the plebians?



Well, some of his plans for change have now been defined and millions here and abroad don’t like the looks of the definitions. The relatively heady days of 2008 have been supplanted with worldwide financial spasms and we are now residents of a world far different from last July.

Those ecstatic hordes of European fans greeted an Elvis-reborn, the political equivalent of a rock star, a potential new kind of American leader who promised a new and different future. They would have gone bonkers for virtually anyone who promised an end to the 8 years of misery many Europeans felt they and the planet had endured under George W. Bush. Those Obamaniacs may turn out again but their gusto may be tempered by doubts that Obama is not all he seemed to be seven months ago.

Last year, Obama wanted to ice his Berlin cake with a speech at the Brandenburg Gate, perhaps to repeat JFK’s memorable words of 45 years earlier, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” or, “I am a jelly donut,” in German slang, but he was denied that overreaching presumption. In a few days, when he speaks at the G-20 confab in London, Obama will be lucky to get a cup of tepid tea and a stale crumpet.

Had President Ronald Reagan–and Pope John Paul II–not succeeded in having Mr. Gorbachev “tear down that wall,” Obama most assuredly would have put in an appearance at the Berlin Wall, which for decades divided the free West from the enslaved East Germany. Candidate Obama, absent his teleprompter, might have delivered an inspiring oration and could have incorporated these memorable words: “Messrs. Putin and Medvedev, the world would really like you to consider, umm, y’know, maybe putting a gate in that wall there, ya know, the one behind me. Or, maybe, umm, setting a gate timetable, or something.”

But history denied him that opportunity in 2008 and will in 2009 which is regrettable since his German fans would have lapped it up, just as Hitler’s brownshirts lapped up his inspirational words 70 years ago. As a reminder of when Germans last idolized a rock star, take a listen here to how Der Fuehrer could stoke a crowd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KgJQUXr2Ws.

Now, God forbid, I am not in any way comparing Obama to Hitler. For one thing, Hitler didn’t rely on a teleprompter, for another Obama is not a card-carrying member of the “Master Race” and, for a third, Adolph referred to Negroes as “half apes” in Mein Kampf. That would make Obama a “quarter ape,” in Hitler’s mind. Nevertheless, there are definite similarities in the semi-hysterical enthusiasm of their audiences.

As Mister Obama prepares for a triumphant European reprise, this time as President of the United States and, not incidentally, Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces and reputed, unofficial Leader of the Free World, he may be in for a radically different reception from 2008. His “Euros for Obama Fan Club” . . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com/.)