Nailing Down The German Vote

Political Animal 107 Comments

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Is there nothing that Obama can’t do?
(h/t to Ed S.)
“Ich bin ein Beginner” *
Update – He said, “This is THE moment.” Sixteen times.
And –

Never put a small man on a big stage. It just makes him look smaller. Watching that thing in the office, there were more than a few uncomfortable snickers. It looked ridiculous, even to those here who were considering him.
He’s not JFK standing for freedom against the partition of Germany. He is not Ronald Reagan putting a metaphorical dagger in the heart of the Soviet Empire. He’s just a guy trying to scramble onto their shoulders. He looked silly doing it.”

107 Replies to “Nailing Down The German Vote”

  1. “Canadians and Europeans enjoy superior educational systems, heath care, and a happier populace.
    Yep, Americans don’t want any part of this.”
    Dystopia’s child
    I suppose you think that Canadians have a history and reputation of “peace keeping” instead of being great warriors; and, I suppose you think that radical islam views us differently than Americans. After all, isn’t that what you’ve been told?
    You’ve been watching too many M.Moore documentaries. Of all G8 countries, Americans who have actually been through the health care system are the most satisfied. These stats have been posted on this site, you’re full of B.S.
    Social promotion is doing wonders for our education system, and our Universities are becoming a laughing stock because of the lower entrance standards, you’re full of B.S.
    Although Americans are stressed out WRT the economy and other immediate issues, between 70 – 80% of Americans are happy with their own personal situation. Americans (and you) have been sucked in by the MSM to believe that everything has gone to h*ll for everyone else, so suckers like you regurgitate the rhetoric, you’re full of B.S.
    http://www.gallup.com/poll/103483/Most-Americans-Very-Satisfied-Their-Personal-Lives.aspx
    As you can see your BS won’t fly here, you’ve been brain washed!

  2. We all know that adoring throngs of Germans cheering a speaker is a guarantee that they are a blessing to the world.
    Like Slim Pickens said in Blazing Saddles though, “He can do purdier things with his tongue than a twenty dollar whore”

  3. Do you know that despite the fact that Germans guarantee a free college education, in the US, far more poor people go to college? You can look it up. You can’t figure it out from your opinion though.

  4. Looks like Obama has already attached his lips to the Euro arse.
    Oh Lee Harvey Oswald, where art thou?

  5. The MSM is making a big deal out of the number of people in attendance at Obama’s German love festival.
    But you have to remember that in general Europeans, especially the younger ones, are fascinated by America. They may pretend as a group they dislike America, but the actual truth is quite the opposite.
    Obama is flashy, flies in a big plane, smooth talker, and they soak it up. I guarantee you that if he had started to wiggle his hips to Elvis Presley they would have gone mad with excitement.
    It is a childish fascination, and attending his speech was probably seen as the “in thing” to do, especially for all those young Germans who are currently on their 6 week summer vacations and who are trying to look hip.

  6. Obama is just too smooth. I’ve seen him a few times on the news tonight and can’t, for the life of me, remember one thing he said.
    All cliches, all schlock, all of time.
    And, OMG, he could become the POTUS. It’s surreal. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion. What can stop it from happening?
    WAKE UP, AMERICA!

  7. The citizen of the world comment was a mistake, it wont play well. Attacking it too directly would be a mistake on McCain’s part but it is worth highlighting.
    It is platitudinous in the most Obama like way, tastes great, less filling (sounds great means nothing), but should the Ohio or Michigan Auto Worker hear that isnt his/her reaction going to be to globalization and foreigners taking his/her job?
    Generally people want politicans who help them not others. You can help others when you are in a comfortable place yourself or feel it is required to help your own well being….i.e. dont let them starve they’ll only come by to steal.
    McCain has a chance to play this up but needs to be subtler about it.
    Now, Obama’s opportunity, and what he is trying to show, is that the world loves America and wants to love America, if only the right guy is in charge.
    What I fear about Obama is what I remember reading about how the Europeans totally soured on Carter at the end. Dithered, no backbone, no direction too nice……it is better to be respected than loved

  8. What scares me is that with every four year presidential election cycle we have a more dumbed down public. Sorry, but, it’s true. The MSM in this country are worse than usual in crossing the line, they now act as outright agents of that moronic Empty Suit. Scary, isn’t it.
    The Germans can swoon over Obama for all I care, when they aren’t at your throat they are at your knees as per Churchill. It’s a culture so riddled with excess, either disgustingly decadent or maniacally homicidal that they are off my radar forever as normal and something that I would respect.
    It appears that you have to move a country into the gutter, in this time in history, like Britain before the average clueless birdbrain wakes up.
    The lefty MSM are worse than any of the raggedy-assed terrorists that haunt our planet because they are well-fed, safe from harm, recipients of our democratic society and then undermine those very things. Obama, a mirror image of their superficial selves, is what they want imposed on us.

  9. Obamma goes to Germany and holds hands and sings “We are the world”.
    I’m finding his personal messianism a bit worrying. OK He’s a poltiician and uses rhetoric. But he only uses vacuous, cheap rhetoric, the kind that impresses 15 year olds.
    I really do believe he thinks of himself in messianic terms.
    He has already stopped the seas rising. Now he is breaking down walls, between peoples, rich and poor, etc. etc. etc. etc. Any rhetorical trick to garner some likeness to Kennedy or Reagan.
    However, they weere both presidents and had achieved a lot before becoming such. Obama is empty tundra.

  10. Obamma goes to Germany and holds hands and sings “We are the world”.
    I’m finding his personal messianism a bit worrying. OK He’s a poltiician and uses rhetoric. But he only uses vacuous, cheap rhetoric, the kind that impresses 15 year olds.
    I really do believe he thinks of himself in messianic terms.
    He has already stopped the seas rising. Now he is breaking down walls, between peoples, rich and poor, etc. etc. etc. etc. Any rhetorical trick to garner some likeness to Kennedy or Reagan.
    However, they weere both presidents and had achieved a lot before becoming such. Obama is empty tundra.

  11. All cliches, all schlock, all of time.
    Couldn’t have put it better myself, batb.
    Now, how about that royal “we”.
    All me; all Obama; all the time.

  13. Barack Obama is what you get when you clean up Bill Clinton, pull him out of the Arkansas Trailer Park, and stick him in Harvard Law School, instead of Georgetown.

  14. Carl @3.26 I like your points, but please post links and info supporting them.
    I am willing to belieeeeeve 🙂

  15. Wllyj @ 3.52. He does not spek well in the sense of rhetoric, let alone content.
    He speaks well in the sense that he has a barritone voice, the best voice for public speaking.

  16. Stephen @4.05 I hear and appreciate your arguments.
    But, this “little stunt” cost millions of dollars and was very tightly organized by Obama’s masters.
    This “little stunt” also set a precedent of a US presidential election campaign going international. I am reminded of Roman Emperors who resorted to foreigners to get “elected” Emperor.
    BTW I think the Roman Empire was a good thing.

  17. Stephen: “The citizen of the world comment was a mistake, it wont play well. Attacking it too directly would be a mistake on McCain’s part but it is worth highlighting.”
    I just saw McCain on the news, and I think he’s already on to it. Unlike Obama’s drivel, I’ve been able to remember what McCain had to say.
    He said, essentially, that he would have preferred to see a president, not a presidential candidate, speaking to the German people and that he felt it was important to stay in tune with the issues closer to home.
    ‘You writing his speeches, Stephen?! 😉

  18. Be afraid,be very afraid.When the whole world starts to worship Obama,then just maybe the anti-christ is lurking.He is the exact right age and ethnicity,claims to be all things to all men.Is a vaccuouse idol with no substance.There is a puppet master somewhere pulling the strings. The media is “twitterpated” and will hear nothing but wonderful things about their idol. God help us all!

  19. Waiting any day now for some paper to proclaim him the second coming of Christ.

  20. That was about as smarmy/phony as it could get.
    Forget the “Beginner”, this should be the beginning of the end if there’s any sanity among the majority of voters in the US.
    He’s simply gone over the top and over the line.
    What comes to mind is: Who the hell does he think he is?

  21. batb,
    I am flattered but no, people with more IQ and more talent with words are doing that.
    I am but a lowly observer.
    Unlike many here I actually like Obama, I think he represents something interesting and important. I am glad he is the democratic nominee rather than Hillary…relieved is the better word.
    I also think the campaign he is running is brilliant…as in wow it is run well, good messages etc. It is essentially a 2008, technology fueled, youth version of Reagan’s its morning in America again. Same core message, America is good, time for a change and let America shine. Old old political ideas just properly packaged. This is why it resonates and is working, there actually isnt anything “new” about it. And Hope….heck that was Bill Clintons theme in 1992 (kid from Hope etc) These are messages that work in US politics time and again.
    The personality cult thing is troubling, I dont think Obama believes it….I think, some days I wonder. But other days I think he is just a really talented pol who uses all the tactics that any talented pol would use.
    1) Empty rhetoric, its about leaving options open, his words have soooo many loopholes in them he can manouver
    2) Inspiring speaking style…just about lots of packaged soundbited, there is no unwrapping of an argument in his speeches. This is typical, I agree with the commentator who said it is about the baritone. Also notice how he is always photo’d from below or from the side….the heroic pose, goes back to Roman busts….old trick.
    3) Consistent theme….he has a standard stump speech and it works for him….he’ll need to change it. I watched his speech at the Dem convention in 2004 and he used similar themes, my story could only happen here, improbable etc etc.
    Point 3 will wear thin eventually, but it is a story that fits with an American Dream meme. Bill Clinton used it, little boy from hope….its the Lincoln in a log cabin, anyone can be President “myth”. We all want to believe it is true, and part of me buys into that. Obama is not a Bush, a Clinton, a Kennedy a Cuomo etc. neither was Bill C when he ran.
    McCain hasnt set a real theme yet, as far as I can tell. Being more experienced seems to be it, but it is a counter theme so far (which by definition makes him like the opposition or the challenger), it lost Gore and Bush I their elections. McCain needs a positive theme all his own. The advanced version of this was what Reagan did with the lone Bear Hunter….great ads.
    Cant use the better off than 4 years ago….McCain is in a tough spot. He needs to chip away and erode any building of support for Obama in foreign policy, commander in chief while buidling his domestic platform.
    He still hasnt found his voice. Cant win the presidency as “The Maverick” or “Straight Talk Express”. There are very smart people working for the Republicans, and McCain is no dummy. They’ll develop a theme that is authentic to McCain.
    This election is is going to be a solid win for one of these two, but it will look close till mid October then someone will develop a lead. There are enough doubts about Obama that prevent him from developing an early lead, while they remain and if they get confirmed then his lead will evaporate.
    Both candidates have strong core support and a general likeability…..But it will be a solid win, not Reagan or Nixon 72, more like Nixon 68 for whoever wins…..too early to say right now.

  22. I’m surprised his speech wasn’t plastered with the 3 most common words in Deutschland, ein pils, bitte.

  23. i heard on the radio, one of the reasons so many were there to hear “Him” was that two pop bands played a free concert before “He” took the stage! will try to find more details on this and post it.

  24. Can’t stand Barack, but I thought what a great opportunity to deliver a few home truths to the Europeans. Unfortunately he wouldn’t know a home truth if it came up and bit him (which it probably will).
    What an empty speech. It was a shopping list of tasks to be done. Okay, Barack, roll up your sleeves and do the work. There were far too many tasks listed. It reminded me of one of those speeches at a political convention where every interest group is touched on.
    But the latest polls say he is not that far ahead and that Americans just don’t know enough about him.
    The strongest reaction from the crowd was about ending the war in Iraq. If I was a soldier I would be insulted by his pandering to this anti-war sentiment and especially by his cancelling a visit to a military hospital in Germany.

  27. While BHO wends his way across Europe his numbers at home continue to slowly wane. A number of the better polls have only a one percentage point difference between him and McCain today. Where is his bounce that the MSM was fully expecting?
    Even more interesting is that BHO’s numbers are beginning to crater in some states there were gimmes for him earlier.
    What the MSM and the pollsters are NOT talking about is a factor that has to have the Obama campaign sweating bullets behind the curtain. Since no one has any way to assign a numerical factor to “The Bradley Effect” prior to the election they all ignore it.
    Believe me, it exists this time around, it’s real, it’s going to be larger than expected or predicted in whispers, and it will bury BHO.
    A large part of the voters in the south are not ready to elect a black president. A very significant number of Dems will not vote for a black. A large number of Independents will not vote for a black. Oh, they all tell the pollsters they will, but then they don’t when in the privacy of the voting booth. Hence the pre-election polls and the exit polls saying one thing, and the actual votes saying something totally different (The Bradley Effect).
    My guess is that if the inability to predict the magnitude of the Bradley Effect did not exist the truth might be McCain up by 5 or 6 points right now. Probably by 10 after Barry ends his swing through the Mideast and Europe.

  28. With the blind obedience of the media in hand, it would’ve been more symbolic to have spoken from the bunker.

  29. “The Germans can swoon over Obama for all I care, when they aren’t at your throat they are at your knees as per Churchill. It’s a culture so riddled with excess, either disgustingly decadent or maniacally homicidal that they are off my radar forever as normal and something that I would respect”-PENNY
    HHMMM now who is being a bigot?

  30. If you act like a President people will see you as one.
    Much easier to choose that way. This rally and trip was pure brilliance.
    This was done for the swing voters.
    This was done so America can picture him as a leader.
    I am curious to see net week’s poll numbers.

  31. I’m no fan of Obama, but let’s all rejoice that we’re not hearing very much about Hillary anymore.

  32. With regards to the troll who essentially called me a nazi: Some of us actually know our history because we read things called books. These books have words in them, and sometimes pictures too. Sometimes, a book on world war two will contain German propaganda posters! If you’re especially educated on your history, you may have seen perhaps dozens or even hundreds of these posters! Why is this important information?
    It’s important because the next time you see some smarmy schmuck try to pull the same crap you won’t be fooled. Pity tha you haven’t seen more propaganda posters, eh?

  33. KevinB, you should understand that the Messiah is still only the “presumptive democratic nominee”! we’ll be hearing from HRC soon enough.

  34. O Barack, I’ve been completely wrong about you! I repent wholeheartedly:
    Listening to you,
    I get the music.
    Gazing at you,
    I get the heat.
    Following you,
    I climb the mountains.
    I get excitement at your feet.
    Right behind you,
    I see the millions.
    On you,
    I see the glory.
    From you,
    I get opinions.
    From you,
    I get the story.

  35. Mark, I didn’t spot the commenter in question, but as someone that’s read a book or two, I can assure you that the upward-facing profile is in fact a reoccurring propaganda image associated with National-Socialist and Bolshevik posters. The layout artist of the Tiergarten poster knew that too. It’s not rocket science—it’s commercial art 10. Come to think of it(!) my commercial art teacher was a Berliner named Willy Rohrelack whose printer father was taken to the camps and Willy pressed into the Wehrmacht when they were discovered. No wonder I know this! Forget what I said about books. Prost!

  36. As Rush said, one event that did not have media coverage was BHO visiting his place of birth as he didn’t want to disturb the animals.
    He had posters, in Hebrew at THE WALL and it did not go over well. He was heckled there. Talking of the propaganda posters, and BHOs. There he was, in Berlin, in Germany, where Hitler stood years in front of cheering crowds with his arm lifted in a salute. Take a look at BHOs stance at the same place with his arm raised. He promised to bring the world together in peace and harmony. It is the moment. It is the time. Has he explained how he is going to get muslims to stop beheading other muslims or journalists. The fist time something happens, if he is elected, like a suicide bomb, people will be all over him, you said if you got elected all that would stop. When he pulls the troops out and the taliban take over and attack, he will get blamed. He will have four years of being blamed for breaking his promise to bring peace and goodwill to all the world. And as he has promised to change the world, he will be condemned by the world.
    He asked Germany to step up its committment to Afgan, as America can’t do it alone. Someone tell him that america hasn’t been alone in Afghan, Canada is there doing the heavy lifting and taking the most casualties. He said europe was america’s best friend, and snubbed Canada. He snubbed the PM of Britain, he snubbed wounded troops, and military bases. I have been a strong supporter of our mission in Afghan, but if BHO gets elected, I say bring our troops home by Jan 23, 2009. If he thinks america is hated now, just wait till he does not deliver on one promise to make change.
    How many of that crowd will cast a vote in Nov, and how many votes did he lose today, from the military and independants.

  37. If you were a Citizen of the World, instead of just a narrow Nationalist, you would pick up what he’s putin’ down.

  38. “If you were a Citizen of the World, instead of just a narrow Nationalist, you would pick up what he’s putin'[sic] down.”
    Except Barack Obama isn’t running for “Leader of the Free World” or “Good Buddy of Europe”. These are honorifics that might (but might not) result from future foreign policy decisions.
    Barack Obama is running for the office of President of the United States. If elected, he will automatically become the narrowest nationalist of all: the national interests of the US will come first and foremost for him at all times, no matter what his foreign admirers in Germany or France or Canada or anywhere else might think. He will have no choice in the matter because “America First” is the most important responsibility in the job description of any US president.*
    How could it possibly be otherwise? Americans elect an American to lead America.
    We’ll see what kind of “Citizen of the World” President Obama turns out to be if, say, there’s a NAFTA dispute with Canada or the Europeans fail to support some US initiative on Afghanistan or terrorism.
    As I have said before, I’m not sure what will ultimately prove be more disappointing for the expectations of Senator Obama’s enraptured supporters: his defeat or his victory.
    * It would be worth asking Germans whether their Chancellor should put German or American national interests first at all times. Ha ha!

  39. “youth version of Reagan’s its morning in America again. Same core message, America is good, time for a change and let America shine”
    Except for one thing, Reagan defined the change he believed in, he had written about it, given speeches about in, with specifics and it was a rejection of everything Obama stands for. And the other thing, Obama’s “change” policies had a long record of failure before Reagan came along, the deepest failures in the Carter administration. Which makes today’s economy seem like something out of the legend of Atlantis compared to what it was like before Reagan. I remember it well. 18% mortgage rates, 8 or 9 percent unemployment, the numbers were so huge that they seem unbelievable now, but they are the fruit of the policies that Obama offers as “change”
    I personally would feel a lot more comfortable for our country’s future if Hillary were the nominee, and I can’t stand her personally and wish here husband would just pull a Gaugin and disappear to some polynesian island to spend the rest of his life getting laid by pretty young girls, far from cameras or microphones.

  40. “Citizen of the World”
    Hmmm. ‘Has a certain ring to it. ‘Sort of reminds me of “one world government.” ‘Gets me to thinking that maybe that’s what Obama has in mind: One World Government, all of us Citizens of the World, and he’s the LEADER…arghhhhhhhhhh…
    …oh, I just woke up. Was that ever a nightmare…

  41. hahahaha it will be nice to see all you old right wing foogies head explode when Obama is elected in November

  42. Tim,
    Agreed, I was speaking about the message, which is what most people pay attention to as opposed to the previouos writings etc.
    The large overarching theme of Hope and Renewal can be used by conservative OR liberal. Obama grabbed it and slapped Hillary’s campaign upside the head with it. Hillary chose the experience card, as thin as it was people believed it. But most people want Hope not Experience.
    Hope is a goal, experience is a tactic or method of getting there. Safety is a goal, experience or thoughtfulness etc are a way of getting there.
    McCain makes a mistake if he reruns Hillary’s campaign against Obama. The campaign has lost once, it will lose again. McCain needs a larger theme, as I have said. No need to panic yet, it is still so early…but soon.
    Obama in Europe. You can see the backlash beginning, but it is about showing him as a credible player. Today is it, anything more and he risks overexposure, he already does. The more brutal European press will alternatively love him and slap him at the same time for it meaning nothing….this will feed back to US press.
    If Obama is grounded and doesnt believe his own press then he can pivot and spend the rest of his time on domestic issues, eating hot dogs and drinking bad coffee. McCain’s press release about an early victory lap is on the mark, if Obama confirms the comment with actions of Hubris then he will be punished.
    For students of politics and political campaigns this is an election to watch and learn from.
    To domestic matters, there was an article in t he Globe speculatibg that this was 1974, the Canadian environment. Essentially saying DIon was Stanfield and will be harmed by a too complex policy. Agreed on the latter part but Dion is not Stanfield and Harper is definitely NOT Trudeau. But the result of making the Green Shift your main focus will weigh him down. The party knows it.
    Once again another election and campaign to go to school on. Sorry if this was a distraction.

  43. ^^^^^
    Well thought out and balanced view Stephen.
    I think Obama needs to go away for a few days after this.
    Always leave them wanting more. There could be an overcoverage backlash.

  44. Speaking of “Hope” and “Renewal”, apart from the fact that Jimmah Cattah at least had some substance in some areas, Obama is like the second coming of Jimmah. And second comings, like second marriages, are a victory of hope over life experience.

  46. ” old right wing foogies ”
    You know what made us old right wing fogies? Experience. I voted for Jimmy Carter twice. Never voted for a Republican before I voted for Reagan the second time, and proudly. If Obama gets elected, a large portion of your generation can be expected to become “old right wing fogies” too. Obama needs naiive, innocent voters like yourselves that have never heard the brand of economic devastation he is selling before to win elections.

  47. Glenn: “hahahaha it will be nice to see all you old right wing foogies [sic] head [sic] explode when Obama is elected in November”
    WRONG!
    What might explode if Obama is elected in November is another public tower or two. All of his talk about “change” and being “citizens of the world” makes me nervous.
    BO seems to think that if we just make a big enough circle, with everyone holding hands, that all the boogie men–aka terrorists–will go away and we’ll all just be one happy family.
    I don’t think he gets what we’re up against, like so many moonbat weenies: “Just talk nice and be nice and everything will be nice.”
    The only thing bullies–aka terrorists–understand is force, and it better be bigger, better, and braver than theirs. They’ve pushed us around long enough.
    If I was voting in the U.S.A. this November, I wouldn’t want a soft, “this is the moment,” we’re-all-just-one-big-happy-family babysitter in the White House. I wouldn’t want someone who’s had only three years of experience in my country’s government (with an entitled, angry wife). I wouldn’t want Hillary, either.
    I’d want a hard-headed, been-there-done-that, seasoned, tough-love POTUS. ‘Wonder who that might be?

  48. “Hope is a goal”
    Really? Hope is what is left after you have tried everything else. At least to successful people. To losers, hope is what you try first, in place of helping yourself.
    While I take your point that Obama has heavily borrowed from the atmospherics of the Reagan campaign. He has nothing like the record that Reagan had, or the ideas that Reagan had.
    Obama was editor of the Harvard Law Review, but oddly enough, never wrote an article for that publication. Obama destroyed all of the records from his service in government, except that from his 140 days in the Senate.
    “For students of politics and political campaigns this is an election to watch and learn from.”
    No, the Reagan campaign was such an election. All that can be learned from this is can you replicate the Reagan success without the intellectual underpinnings. Next to Obama, Reagan was an intellectual giant, and had the paper trail to prove it going into the presidency.
    Where leftards make their mistakes is drinking their own propaganda that Reagan was an empty suit. Voters never bought that, and for good reason. We will see if Obama can win running as an empty suit.

  50. Obama is going all the way ,
    You can spout all your right wing talking points and insults all you like but the fact is change is in the air. and it all has you shitting your depends.
    Do you think will elect another out of touch clueless leader like MCbush.

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