Barack Obama's Funtastic Berlin Speech

[Kflow123789]

ours went from 4.11 to 1.62

[killerbandit]

What speech did you watch?

[lilimalmal]

so you evaluate the speech based on people cheering him? wow you are shallow! what about the content? why don't you evaluate it regardless of people's reaction? you just like popularity! I bet you never got cheered when you talk. that's why you have this complexity, hmmmm I wonder?!

[TheCollegePolitico]

Wait... what content?

I don't seem to remember any (if only I had pointed that out in the video... oh wait, I did)

[lilimalmal]

no you didn't. you did not give examples at all on why his talk sucks. you gave two shallow examples but actually you sucked at describing it and at the end you again ended up saying "again no one cheered"!! so your conclusion is "a good president is the one who has the most cheering around him" like those silly game shows.

[jjtmmmm]

haha we used to pay

1.50 a gallon..now way pay over 4.00

haha and your trash talk

haha just like bush and mccain..haha

dude i love your vids..

they are so stupid..:D

[TheCollegePolitico]

Dude I love your comments..

they are filled with coherent statements and brilliant analysis that leaves me in constant awe.

[jjtmmmm]

You see fact s are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes our inclinations or the dictates of our passions they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidence so say what you plz,plz because you are entitled to be an idot..

and plus

you amuse all of us

with you great wisdom mr.college boy

so do keep them coming :D

[GreatReposter]

Do you want to know the real Obama BOZAMA?

SEARCH:

watch?v=nqxmn1ZuMw4

watch?v=UNvTwYYRNO4

YOU'LL BE AMAZED-  Please re-post

[nuumskee]

Band or no band he would have recieved a bigger crowd than any other president has in our history and that is something to respect. Even more so at a time when our president would more likly be greeted by large protest and eggs on his car than warm smiles.  We need the world over to support us more than ever for our future and he is more likly to get that support than McCain. The last 8 years have shown us that going in alone is costly in funds and American lives. Large crowds are always good.

[nnymslgn]

I don't want to criticize you, but you make it sound like the Victory Column is some sort of Nazi Memorial. It isn't. It is to commemorate primarily the Prussian Victory in the Danish-Prussian War and others in the 1800's.

It's true that the Nazis moved it from another part of the city and certainly liked the idea of victory, but if thats a problem for you - you'll have a hard time finding a spot untainted by the Nazis in Berlin anyway.

[TheCollegePolitico]

While you're correct about the time period it was originally created in, the Nazis did more than just move that column... They built it higher and intended to make it the center piece of hitler's "germania". The column was extremely important in Nazi lure and as such is forever tainted and certainly makes for a highly inappropriate speaking stage for a presidential candidate.

[TheCollegePolitico]

P.s. The French disliked it so much (probably because it was intended to celebrate victories over the french) they wanted to blow it up after WWII

[nnymslgn]

I know all that. (The Berliners were originally in favor of blowing it up too. The British and Americans were against it)

But just as the Nazis redefined what the column should stands for, the Germany of today redefines it. To me the Victory Column is more or less a reminder of our megalomaniac past.

When I was in Berlin the last time I was joking with a colleague that we really needed a Defeat-Pit to counter the column.

[nnymslgn]

Concerning the appropriateness of a US presidential candidate in front of the column :

You probably know the column wasn't Obamas first choice. He originally wanted to speak in front of the Brandenburg gate. This didn't met the chancellors approval though - "One has to earn the Gate"

That aside - I thought it strange to have a US campaign speech in Germany AT ALL.

PS: I believe that just the novelty-factor of an US presidential campaign on German soil drew in a lot of people this day.

[TheCollegePolitico]

All of those are quite good points.

As for why he made the speech in Berlin at all, I think he was trying to look presidential with that whole trip, including the speech.

According to the polls... he failed terribly.

[surfrider03096]

Ami go home!

[TheCollegePolitico]

huh?

[00kelj00]

lol...I thought you said people didn't applaud?

hmmm...desperation!

[TheCollegePolitico]

Ummm... did you watch the speech? Can you honestly say that it felt like 200,000 people where applauding at point?

Idk I was watching it on CNN. Maybe they doctored it to make it seem like almost no one was cheering.

[00kelj00]

oh, please...listen to yourself.

[TheCollegePolitico]

yea... great point. "listen to yourself" Gosh what a huge burn

[sommersonnenwenden]

You seem to impute to Germans a knowledge of the English language that most of them do not possess. They didn't know when it was appropriate to cheer because they simply didn't understand Obama's speech.

Being a German myself I can tell you that most Germans are almost as ignorant about foreign languages as Americans. The pressure to acquire advanced skills of English is stunningly low here, since everything is dubbed. This should be taken into account when analyzing Obama's speech.

[TheCollegePolitico]

I did consider that point when I was watching the speech, and I'm sure the language barrier was a factor, but it seemed that many of the people did understand what he was saying and did find the appropriate times to cheer... After all the cheers increased significantly during two points where he was commenting on issues that are popular among germans (nuclear non-proliferation and global warming alarmism). If they didn't have a general idea of what he was saying why the change?

[sommersonnenwenden]

There are several explanations for this sudden increase of expression of approval. Firstly, there were many Americans at his speech and secondly, a certain fraction of the German audience were of course English-savvy. Thirdly, perhaps the rest could make out some keywords like "global warming" and then decided to cheer.

[TheCollegePolitico]

Perhaps, but that's not the feeling I got when I was watching it on CNN

[reevaluate2008]

Yeah, maybe they thought it was free.

[reevaluate2008]

The Germans paid for half of that campaign event which cost 3/4 of a million dollars. From the looks of the video they didn't seem to reacat as if they got their money's worth.

[TheCollegePolitico]

P.S. there was a free concert with popular German bands beforehand...

[TheCollegePolitico]

But I'm sure that had absolutely no affect on turnout

[Andromedos]

Neither of the two bands are popular enough to draw crowds of 200.000 people, especially not on a Thursday. Also you might notice that the people did not leave when the music stopped playing... twenty minutes before Senator Obama entered the stage! People waited for him twenty minutes without music, and the crowed kept growing.

[TheCollegePolitico]

I didn't say the concerts were the only reason people showed up for the event but they certainly did happen and I'm positive they had an effect on getting people out to it.

for an example of what I'm talking about just try to imagine the event live 8 with out the free music... how many people would've shown then?

[Andromedos]

The difference is that Live 8 is about music, and nothing else. Live 8 without music would be pointless. The event in Berlin on the other hand was about Obama, with the music as an extra to entertain the people, who came to see Senator Obama.

I watched the entire event live on CNN and other channels. The music stopped 20 minutes befor Obama arrived, yet people kept coming.

And as a comparrison, he drew a larger crowed and more applause than most of German politicians, the chancellor included.

[TheCollegePolitico]

1st Live 8 was an event that was suppose to be about generating aid for africa and putting pressure on the G8... it was not supposed to just be some free concert.

But, all that aside, I wasn't claiming that germans (and most europeans) don't love Obama's image... All I'm saying is that the free concerts certainly had an affect on turnout and the lack of cheering serves to show how uninspiring his speech really was.

[Andromedos]

Germanspaid for the police and security, the Obama campaign paid for everything else.

Also the Obama speech was received very well in Germany for the most part,by the media, politics, and public. Also for modern-day Germans the crowd reacted very warmly towards him. Being to fired up by a politician is considered rather tasteless nowadays.

[reevaluate2008]

Andro, maybe Germans don't drink much kool-aid. ☺