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Not So Humble

Ambinder: If Obama appears presumptuous and arrogant and not humble, there’s a good bet that we’ll see that reflected in the coverage back home. Rather by definition, the proposal that he would speak at the Brandenburg Gate is presumptuous and arrogant, since it is a location usually reserved for addresses by heads of state during official […]

Ambinder:

If Obama appears presumptuous and arrogant and not humble, there’s a good bet that we’ll see that reflected in the coverage back home.

Rather by definition, the proposal that he would speak at the Brandenburg Gate is presumptuous and arrogant, since it is a location usually reserved for addresses by heads of state during official visits on those occasions when it is used at all for political events. [Correction: I see that I was mistaken on this point, at least with regard to its uses by German politicians, but I think it still remains presumptuous for a foreign visiting politician to use it as his backdrop during an election season.]  As I understand it, Merkel is not inclined to give him his photo-op.  Besides, the logistical nightmare of shutting down the area around the Reichstag to host such a thing is probably not the sort of hassle that the Berlin city government and Merkel want to have.  The absurdity of the proposal will probably save Obama from showing off his arrogance in front of the international press.

Update: The proposal is controversial within Germany and has created a rift within the coalition government.  Maybe post-partisanship stops at the water’s edge?  It has drawn this perfectly legitimate and correct statement from Merkel:

No German candidate for high office would even think of using the National Mall or Red Square in Moscow for a rally because it would not be seen as appropriate.

For that matter, no candidate from another country would usually think of doing this, because it would make little sense as a way to win votes back home.  Just as a matter of political calculation, does Obama really want to send the message that he was able to give this speech at Brandenburg Gate because the Social Democrats allowed him to do it over the objections of the center-right Chancellor?  Besides being, well, socialists, the SPD is associated in the minds of most Americans with Gerhard Schroeder to the extent that they think about it at all.  Even if you believe, as I did at the time, that Schroeder was doing us a favour in speaking out against the invasion, he and his party are widely perceived as exploiters of “anti-Americanism.”  While Schroeder is long gone and getting fat off of hefty Russian contracts, that distinction may be lost on audiences back home. 

Second Update: Der Spiegel reports:

His strategists had hoped that Merkel would take the choice of Berlin and the Brandenburg Gate for the speech as a compliment.

Perhaps they also think that holding a rally at the Temple Mount when he visits Israel will be taken as a compliment by someone or other.  These must be the same clever strategists who thought a foreign jaunt would help to strengthen his foreign policy credentials, rather than draw attention to his obvious lack thereof.  At the very least, one hopes that these strategists will not be involved in running foreign policy in a future Obama administration.  As Der Spiegel notes:

But the tumult in Berlin also underscores a bit of foreign policy naivité on the part of Obama’s travel planners. Merkel’s clear choice of words may be surprising, but it wouldn’t have been difficult to imagine that the German government would give a tepid response to his plan to hold a speech at such a highly symbolic historical location.

That’s exactly the image the campaign can’t afford to project.  Then again, it was always likely to be the image that it projected on a European tour, considering that the candidate completely neglected holding hearings of his subcommittee on European affairs and hasn’t traveled much in Europe at all.  How would he and his team know what how the Chancellor would respond?  Actually, common sense might have worked.

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