Thursday, July 24, 2008

berlin cops estimate obama's crowd at 200 thousand...



John McCain says he'll wait until he's president to speechify in Berlin, which, if we're lucky, means he won't be giving speeches in Berlin; or he's just afraid he'd cause a stampede if he let off with one of those ghoulish smiles of his -- either that or he wouldn't draw a coupla hundred, let alone a coupla hundred thousand.

All of which leaves me with the certitude that after 8 years of inflicting the likes of Dubya on the world, We The People of the United States owe it a whole lot better than John McCain.

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Update: Hmm, not alone in my thinking here:
"I'm not an American ... It's your election first," Solvit says. "But I am a world citizen, and what you do will affect us ... If we see that the U.S. is changing, it's good for all of us." Solvit also believes it's a Republican thing to say that foreign support is bad. "Everything is moving. He [Obama] is a symbol of this new evolution."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

For some reason, everyone neglects to mention that Obama spoke at a Free Concert.

Maybe all those thousands of young Germans turned up for the two bands that were playing instead of coming to hear a speach in english.

Nah, Obama's charisma is so powerful it transcends language.

More Kool Aid anyone?

Barking Up Trees said...

what is that -- lime kool-aid yer dispensing... ? the kind that turns yer eyes green with envy... ?

Anonymous said...

some of the newspapers there said the cops overestimated by a factor of 10, and that his crowd was really 20K. Still decent for a politician

No, I did not write the Kool-Aid quote.

I am actually looking forward to Obama. It will have the same energizing effect that Carter did, and we may yet get the next Reagan.

CG2

Anonymous said...

What you and yours fail to comprehend is that Europe, and the rest of the world for that matter, want a weakened America that had to pay other countries to be its friend. We paid North Korea not to build nukes (think we can get a refund), we paid unstable nations not to engage in genocide (refund?) and we backed off in a self-imposed nobless oblige whenever our interests came up against another nation's. It is as if we were the perennial gentleman, and the rest of the world were victorian ladies, and we were expected to hold doors, give up seats, etc.

France was cheesed at us in Iraq, not because of some moral outrage, but toppling Saddam cost them Billions. They had backed that horse, and we took it out. Under the circumstances, you would be cheesed too.

Russia is cheesed at us because if we are flexing our muscles somewhere, they can't. Same for the chinese, who need that oil in order to sell us things.

Fact is, the US started acting like a superpower in the world, instead of the wallflower it had been for so many decades, even under Reagan and Bush (and I seem to recall much bruiting from the left about the first Gulf War). And that pisses off the rest of the world. And we should be careful. Last time we made the Europeans feel irrelevant, it bred Hitler.

Personally, we ought to consider going iso. Pull out of Iraq. Pull out of NATO (who are we protecting anyway?). Pull out of SEATO--the japs can afford thier own army, and the Aussies, at least until this year, proved they can fight. And use the savings to pay down debt instead of raising my taxes.

And if they nuke NYC? No problem, I am upwind.

CG2

Anonymous said...

By the way, you do know he spoke at a rock concert, don't you?

I have german confirmation of this.

CG2