Obama in Berlin

Obama’s tone was serious. But he pulled out his “this is our moment” rhetoric and offered visions of a world transformed. Obama speeches almost always have the same narrative arc. Some problem threatens. The odds are against the forces of righteousness. But then people of good faith unite and walls come tumbling down. Obama used the word “walls” 16 times in the Berlin speech, and in 11 of those cases, he was talking about walls coming down.

The Berlin blockade was thwarted because people came together. Apartheid ended because people came together and walls tumbled. Winning the cold war was the same: “People of the world,” Obama declared, “look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together and history proved there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.”

When I first heard this sort of radically optimistic speech in Iowa, I have to confess my American soul was stirred. It seemed like the overture for a new yet quintessentially American campaign.

But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more.

-- David Brooks for The New York Times

One wonders how a messianic-sounding Obama would actually rule when he has the power and must make his choices. Who is Obama really? Is it the kind of question we should be asking of a prospective president? Shouldn't we have a much better idea of the man as a political leader?

But I think about the McCain Supreme Court, and how Obama does seem to be liberally inclined, and how we need some kind of backtracking after eight years of Dubya, and it seems worth a throw of the dice. Sometimes you gotta have a little bit of faith, my brothers and sisters. Here, have some more Kool-Aid!

Obama in Berlin

Obama’s tone was serious. But he pulled out his “this is our moment” rhetoric and offered visions of a world transformed. Obama speeches almost always have the same narrative arc. Some problem threatens. The odds are against the forces of righteousness. But then people of good faith unite and walls come tumbling down. Obama used the word “walls” 16 times in the Berlin speech, and in 11 of those cases, he was talking about walls coming down.

The Berlin blockade was thwarted because people came together. Apartheid ended because people came together and walls tumbled. Winning the cold war was the same: “People of the world,” Obama declared, “look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together and history proved there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.”

When I first heard this sort of radically optimistic speech in Iowa, I have to confess my American soul was stirred. It seemed like the overture for a new yet quintessentially American campaign.

But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more.

-- David Brooks for The New York Times

One wonders how a messianic-sounding Obama would actually rule when he has the power and must make his choices. Who is Obama really? Is it the kind of question we should be asking of a prospective president? Shouldn't we have a much better idea of the man as a political leader?

But I think about the McCain Supreme Court, and how Obama does seem to be liberally inclined, and how we need some kind of backtracking after eight years of Dubya, and it seems worth a throw of the dice. Sometimes you gotta have a little bit of faith, my brothers and sisters. Here, have some more Kool-Aid!