Obama - Savior of the World

Senator Barack Obama gave his much awaited speech in Berlin yesterday. It wasn't at the Brandenburg Gate as he had originally requested. Instead he delivered it at the Siegessäule monument, one of Hitler's favorite locations for his speeches because of its symbolism of German domination over her neighbors. Indeed, as Tennyson Hayes's wonderful Photoshop masterpiece declares, Obama can only say, "Ich bin ein Beginner." (HT: Michelle Malkin)



He manages to start offending Americans almost from the get-go. Immediately after he thanks various Germans for welcoming him, he says this:

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

First he slips in the subliminal references to Kennedy and Reagan as the "countrymen who have come before." (Look at me! I'm presidential!)

And then that whole "citizen of the world" crap (pardon my language) really annoys me. It's the same leftist claptrap that I've been hearing and reading since my kids started grade school and the mission statement of their school declared its desire to make them into productive citizens of the world. Whatever happened to America, for Pete's sake? Let's make our children and our President into good American citizens, and as a result the world will be better off.

(deep calming breath)

When Obama tells his personal story, the part about his father "seeking freedom and opportunity," he ascribes those qualities to "the West," as though to include Europe. But the rest of it makes clear that Dear Old Dad never looked for freedom in Germany or anywhere else but America:

And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

The father knew the truth better than the son does.

Obama describes the Berlin Air Lift, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and then he mentions 9/11:

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

He makes it sound as though everyone was the target, when 99% of the deaths were American. There's nothing like downplaying the effects on your own fellow citizens in order to ingratiate yourself to others, many of whom don't much like America anyway.

Obama then talks about the differences that we've allowed to divide us across the Atlantic, and the need for us to come together globally to solve the world's problems, because no nation can do it alone. After all, "this is the moment." (cue smarmy pop song)

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

Oh my gosh. Gag me with an axe!

Does Obama really intend to do something about poverty in Bangladesh, refugees in Chad (the French might be offended that we're encroaching on their do-gooder territory), AIDS all over the globe, tyranny in Burma, oppression in Iran, political violence in Zimbabwe (I guess the forced starvation of the people is OK with Obama, as long as the starving people get to vote), and genocide in Darfur? And how much is all of this going to cost the American taxpayer? Because you can count on this: Nobody else is going to pay a dime to help.

If Obama doesn't actually intend to fix the world's woes, then his speech is a hurricane of hot air, and his suit is not only empty but vacuum-sealed.

Gayle left a comment at Sparks from the Anvil that describes who Obama really is in this campaign (hint: not the savior of the world).

He's a post turtle, Wordsmith.

I got the definition of a post turtle in an e-mail:

"When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle. You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a dumb ass put him up there to begin with." :)

Couldn't have said it better myself.