‘People of the world, look at Berlin’

[babylonsister]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16310.html#more-16310

‘People of the world, look at Berlin’
Posted July 24th, 2008 at 2:26 pm



Realistically, it’s not at all fair to keep expecting Barack Obama to deliver stirring, powerful addresses. And yet, he keeps managing to exceed expectations.

It’s striking that there’s a universality to Obama’s message. He sees a nation at a crossroads here at home, but Obama also sees a world facing a turning point. When he says, “This is our time,” it works equally well in Boston as it does in Berlin. When he says, as he did today, “People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one,” he’s talking to everyone.

Watching today, seeing Germans waiving American flags and chanting, “Yes we can,” I thought about something Ezra Klein wrote in January: “Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it.”

snip//

I was also struck by just how much ground Obama covered. Climate change, loose nukes, counter-terrorism, AIDS, poverty, free speech, religious liberty, Darfur, drug trafficking, rule of law — it was all in there.

I never know how people are going to react to speeches, but Obama’s speech struck me as a home run.

The whole speech is online, if you wanted to read it, but to fully appreciate it, try and find the video.

[gblady]

1. thanks.....

I love this:
“Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it.”

[Barack_America]

2. That's exactly how I felt hearing him speak.

I've seen him in front of a few people (our J/J dinner), a number of people (1.500 at a volunteer-only rally) and a whole shitload of people (the 48,000 Philly rally). Yet, no matter the venue, how close I am, what he says, etc., I'm always thinking of the history I'm taking part in.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Obama speaks to loftier goals and transcends the pettiness of today's junior HS politics.