Ich bin … busy?
posted at 5:50 pm on October 16, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
A year ago, the city of Berlin was so important to Barack Obama that he conducted a campaign event there. This year, though, the 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin’s most notorious Cold War symbol and the end of the Iron Curtain doesn’t interest the leader of the free world. Der Spiegel reports that Obama has taken a pass on the celebration of the demolition of the Berlin Wall (via HA reader Constantius):
US President Barack Obama has shelved his plans to attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will reportedly take his place at the Nov. 9 celebrations.
Germany is going to have to wait longer than expected for US President Barack Obama’s first official visit. Citing government sources in Berlin, Reuters reported on Friday that Obama will not attend the anniversary festivities marking two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event will take place on Nov. 9 — just two days before Obama embarks on a long-planned trip to Asia on Nov. 11.
According to the German television channel n-tv, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will stand in for the president. It is considered unlikely that her husband, the former President Bill Clinton, will accompany her.
Berlin is going all out for the anniversary, with such luminaries as Kofi Annan, Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa expected to be in attendance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing hard to complete ongoing coalition negotiations soon so that her government is fully formed in time for the festivities.
Hot Air readers will remember how Obama treated Berlin … when it was all about Obama:
It’s not the first country in Europe to get snubbed on a war commemoration, either. The White House blew off the Poles and their observance of the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, and then announced that the US would reverse itself on missile defense on the anniversary of the Soviet invasion a fortnight or so later. The Obama administration seems to have a pretty poor sense of history, especially for a group that prides itself on maintaining its international standing.
This case is especially egregious, for two reasons. First, as noted above, Obama used Berlin when he needed to show that he could make America popular abroad. Second, the US played a very large role in helping to bring down that wall, and certainly made it a cause celebre for almost 40 years. Its 20th anniversary should have the American head of state to underscore our part in that history.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2
And some of them can legally drive, too.
What a world, what a world….
:-)
coldwarrior on October 16, 2009 at 6:38 PM
Foghorn Leghorn, is that you?
Firefly_76 on October 16, 2009 at 6:39 PM
I don’t see it here, either. Not surprising about that being said though and I bet I know the person who said it. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it as SHE is a tool and flaming hypocrite.
loppyd on October 16, 2009 at 6:40 PM
I guess I have to keep warning people about this: Please don’t drag threads off-topic with LGF-baiting. They always end up consuming the discussion.
Allahpundit on October 16, 2009 at 6:42 PM
Sorry AP.
Just frustrated to see that over there.
loppyd on October 16, 2009 at 6:44 PM
Ofcourse she was cheering
Didn’t Arafat get a Nobel for his peace-efforts ?
macncheez on October 16, 2009 at 6:44 PM
The crowds in Berlin will be cheering the fall of the Berlin wall and not about President, Itsalla Boutme….so why would the President go to Germany when he isn’t the center of attention?
yoda on October 16, 2009 at 6:45 PM
Gee, the sonorous lilting speeches with full reverb, the adoring sycophants, the limited-tone personality oriented campaign posters, the adoring, slobbering media. Yeah, I can’t imagine why anyone would ever draw a parallel.
AZfederalist on October 16, 2009 at 6:50 PM
Why would Obama cross the street to celebrate the fall of a political system he seeks to foist upon a people who do not want it? If you look at the people he surrounds himself with you can only come to the conclusion that Obama is a Communist and an enemy of America.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft on October 16, 2009 at 6:50 PM
Right, mate, but 666 is a number perhaps more recognizable by this president.
TXUS on October 16, 2009 at 6:52 PM
Allah, it just makes us angry about what they are doing over there….we want to defend Michelle, you and Ed. We want to defend ourselves. It’s small minded what they are doing, no better than Daily Kos.
HornetSting on October 16, 2009 at 6:52 PM
See, he wants the wall to go back up….
Kafir on October 16, 2009 at 6:56 PM
When will the American people realize that Obama will veto anything that demonstrates American exceptionalism, or even anything good that America has done?
As it was in the beginning, is now, and every shall be: Obama.
GaltBlvnAtty on October 16, 2009 at 6:57 PM
Barry Hussein doesn’t want to have to talk about American steadfastness and the defeat of communism-that’s so 20th century; he also doesn’t want to offend his friends and far-left supporters (e.g., Van Jones, the nitwit lady who loves Chairman Mao). This administration is an unfunny joke.
Travis Bickle on October 16, 2009 at 6:58 PM
Of course he’s not attending. It’s a sad day for communist sympathizers.
AmericanUnderground on October 16, 2009 at 6:59 PM
In a way, this is an OT aside, but it is all of a piece re ObaMao and his fellow travelers who sympathize more with the Communists, whether Marxist/Leninist or Maoist:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWI3MTg5OTkzMDhkNTM5Nzk1ZThjYTIyOTUyNzNkNWU=
Andy McCarthy has more to say about Anita Dunn and the others who surround ObaMao.
onlineanalyst on October 16, 2009 at 7:05 PM
I can’t believe that Obama doesn’t want a cameo of a time when America was loved around the world (in Obama’s lifetime).
It’s hard to believe that he has time to accept the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of . . . himself. But our representative doesn’t feel the need to represent us during a moment of national triumph.
I’m beginning to hold Obama in the same contempt he holds America and American greatness. I don’t think Obama has anything nice to say about America other than it’s good that he’s president.
I think he thinks America doesn’t deserve him.
500B in cuts to Medicare. . . Let’s get it done.
ThackerAgency on October 16, 2009 at 7:09 PM
I wake up every morning and click on this site.
Only 1191 days until a new President is sworn in.
coldwarrior on October 16, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Too many communist heroes in the lives of Soetoro White Staff members to celebrate the fall of communism in Berlin.
Ricohoc on October 16, 2009 at 7:13 PM
My first thought was, he did not want to be compared to Reagan at this time.
The contrast would be sharp.
IowaWoman on October 16, 2009 at 7:15 PM
Thanks for the link, and I’m just hoping, actually praying, no more time has to be added on the clock.
TXUS on October 16, 2009 at 7:20 PM
He would be moved to tears… that a communist country fell.
Daggett on October 16, 2009 at 7:21 PM
spot on
cmsinaz on October 16, 2009 at 7:22 PM
Well, when you and your wife weren’t proud of your country until your election, it takes a while to appreciate its worth.
TXUS on October 16, 2009 at 7:25 PM
Maybe its because the wall would still be there if Barry had his eay.
RobCon on October 16, 2009 at 7:30 PM
Sorry Fritz. Barry discards you like an old cigarette.
RobCon on October 16, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Wow, he’s dissin’ everybody these days isn’t he?
vcferlita on October 16, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Can an entire city fit under that bus?
The Monster on October 16, 2009 at 7:42 PM
If you weren’t so pathetic, you would be hilarious also…
lovingmyUSA on October 16, 2009 at 7:45 PM
FIFY
lovingmyUSA on October 16, 2009 at 7:47 PM
He has thrown the entire village under the bus. There’s nobody left to raise the children.
Mojave Mark on October 16, 2009 at 7:54 PM
Wait a minute–you have “friends”?? Oh that’s right–internet “friends”–heh…
lovingmyUSA on October 16, 2009 at 7:55 PM
crr6 loves nObama. Bambi couldn’t go to Berlin this time because he had to wash his hair…or socks…or somethin’.
Or better, he’s got a whole country to ruin, and he isn’t quite done yet.
Wanderlust on October 16, 2009 at 8:04 PM
The fall of the Berlin Wall is about freedom and not about President, Itsalla Boutme.
yoda on October 16, 2009 at 8:10 PM
He’s busy, writing his next speech:
“I want to be clear about this: I want to thank ME, for being ME.”
Yoop on October 16, 2009 at 8:15 PM
“This one time, at band camp…”
venividivici on October 16, 2009 at 8:17 PM
LOL… Obama celebrating a defeat of Communist rule, who really thought he’s ever do such a thing?
RJL on October 16, 2009 at 8:27 PM
Unless he is doing everything in his power to bring back that history…
… and when you look at what he has done, and wants to do, is exactly that, comrade!
Seven Percent Solution on October 16, 2009 at 8:28 PM
I was 11yrs old when the wall was built overnight. The world, and Germany woke up to an Iron Curtain pulled across Germany. I grew up hearing stories and seeing the heroic attempts to escape…
“Climbing was the obvious way to go and some 5,000 were said to have reached the other side. However in its thirty year history 100 people were shot dead, most famously the eighteen year old Peter Fetcher, who, after he was hit in the hip, was left to bleed to death in no-man’s land as the world’s media watched on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PeterFechter_nextowall.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fechter
As security tightened, more ‘creative’ escape plans became the order of the day. Tunnels and jumping from bordering buildings were two more successful ways of getting to the West, although the Wetzel and Strlzyck families eloped in true style – floating to salvation in a hot air balloon which they had fashioned from hundreds of small pieces of nylon cloth (after which it became almost impossible to buy cloth in the East). Rivalling them for the coveted prize of brave escapes, is the citizen who drove up to the checkpoint barrier and, winding down the roof of his convertible at the last minute, slipped underneath! Needless to say that a lower barrier was subsequently installed.”
I was a mother of my 2nd daughter, a one-year old when it fell. I am ashamed, as an American, of our president.
“Mr. Gorbechov–TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!!!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbE_9MdASDE
lovingmyUSA on October 16, 2009 at 8:37 PM
Did your “friends” find it hilarious that Obama choose a monument to German militarism for his speech? That’s where the Hitler reference came in, if at all.
“Obama flunks history, again” by Ed Morrissey
At that speech Obama claimed ‘the world came together to save East Berlin…’ Nonsense. It was a unilateral action by President Harry Truman, bucking his own party’s fear of, and willingness to capitulate to, the Soviets.
Obama is pathologically incapable of admitting unilateral action has yielded positive results, advanced the cause of freedom.
Obama is the Anti-Reagan: anti-democracy and pro-tyranny. He doesn’t want to attend if Reagan will outshine him, and invalidate his obsequious, apology ridden approach to foreign policy.
PASSING THROUGH BERLIN
Hearing Obama mangle US history time and time again one realizes he has bought into every old left (Marxist) and new left (Anti-industrial Environmentalist) lie about America and the West.
It’s sad.
Peace_Sells... on October 16, 2009 at 8:38 PM
would you MORONS please STFU re LGF…….If you’re so g**d**mn obsessed with that pukey site, please just go park there – the rest of us have lives we’d like to lead, and real issues we’d like to discuss.
Thank you.
alwyr on October 16, 2009 at 8:41 PM
crr6 on October 16, 2009 at 5:55 PM
heh. u don’t have friends.
everyone here knows that.
bluelightbrigade on October 16, 2009 at 8:42 PM
&& No one here cares what Hansel & Gretel think about Americans.
bluelightbrigade on October 16, 2009 at 8:43 PM
President “Me” Obama continually finds new ways to embarrass our country, but this one is completely inexcusable.
Ist er nicht ein Haufenmist?
Ja, er ist ein Haufenmist!
jwolf on October 16, 2009 at 8:48 PM
bluelightbrigade
Punking the punk…+++1000
lovingmyUSA on October 16, 2009 at 8:53 PM
If Obama wanted to do the CLASSY thing, he’d go to Berlin and take Bush 41 and Nancy Reagan with him to represent the resolve that led to the fall of the Wall.
Red State State of Mind on October 16, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Yay! Thank you. I hope for silence when it comes to that website.
bridgetown on October 16, 2009 at 9:14 PM
That’s exactly why he’s not going. We were just throwing our weight around while Germany was trying to have a robust debate about freedom.
PattyJ on October 16, 2009 at 9:24 PM
The fall of the Berlin Wall isn’t a big deal to commies like Barry Hussein Obama.
Really Right on October 16, 2009 at 9:43 PM
The Europeans (Germans) in this case, don’t know the old adage, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it…Obama fulfilled all their requirements, he isn’t George W Bush.
Gutes Glück mit diesem Deutschland.
Dr Evil on October 16, 2009 at 9:43 PM
Dr Evil:
We, collectively, are the ones who voted this creep into office. To the extent any American voters were impressed by the large European crowds, shame on us.
While Obama’s policies will inflict some damage on Germany over time, the immediate damage is and will be to the US.
We are the ones who need some good luck.
GaltBlvnAtty on October 16, 2009 at 9:53 PM
These European sheeple have yet to realize that Chairman Obama is of the same brand as those who built the Berlin Wall.
I’m betting most of them figured the Wall was just some kind of “mistake” and is in no way indicative of how these leftist radicals really think.
Dr. ZhivBlago on October 16, 2009 at 9:54 PM
He’s not going anywhere that he isn’t the main attraction. Haven’t you guys figured that out yet?
rockmom on October 16, 2009 at 10:03 PM
They built the wall because they had taken an accurate measure of our young president. The bad guys know how to make that measurement, and they have done it again.
GaltBlvnAtty on October 16, 2009 at 10:04 PM
Ed, Bob Herbert of The New York Times is very upset about the picture you used for this post.
BuckeyeSam on October 16, 2009 at 10:08 PM
Sore loser.
Ted Torgerson on October 16, 2009 at 10:10 PM
No way would Obama attend a celebration for something that is in many ways the crowning achievement of a Republican President. Who can even think of the Berlin Wall without envisioning Reagan demanding that it be torn down?
He doesn’t honor Republicans, he just cleans up their messes. /sarc
mbs on October 16, 2009 at 10:23 PM
Will anyone from the Reagan family ( Nancy, Micheal) be there or it will be another eat n greet fest signifying nothing ?
macncheez on October 16, 2009 at 10:48 PM
Perhaps someone already said this but:
I am appalled that he is not a decent man and an honorable president.
But, he is not. And, frankly, seeing his smarmy a$$ up there giving a speech about something he certainly does not perceive as important…I think he would just be a tremendous embarrassment and an insult to the memory of Ronald Reagan. Screw him. I’m glad he’s not going. SCREW HIM.
keebs on October 16, 2009 at 10:52 PM
I’m not real happy about Hillary Clinton representing the U.s. either. Why not George Soros since he is he one actually calling the foreign policy shots in this White House? Hillary is the biggest joke all over the world.
rockmom on October 16, 2009 at 11:04 PM
SOCIALISM bumper stickers, with the “O” in the format of the Obama symbol are now prevalent…in…Los Angeles.
Schadenfreude on October 17, 2009 at 12:31 AM
Oh well….
Rightwingguy on October 17, 2009 at 2:11 AM
Hmm, why would Obama go to Berlin? The person who brought down the Berlin wall was Reagan, and he didn’t get a Nobel prize for it either. Why would Obama want to contrast himself and his lack of accomplishment and leadership with true Leadership of a great President?
wuesteblitz on October 17, 2009 at 4:06 AM
I am in Berlin now and there is a Kennedy museum by the Brandenburg Gate. You should see the huge pic in the window: http://i34.tinypic.com/5owgw6.jpg
woohoo on October 17, 2009 at 5:37 AM
woohoo on October 17, 2009 at 5:37 AM
By the time the NEA gets through, The One will have torn down The Wall.
IlikedAUH2O on October 17, 2009 at 6:47 AM
Obama has no sense of history and no sense of the abject evil that global communism once projected. He also really has no interest in foreign policy beyond what he judges will polish his ego – e.g. pre-emptively surrendering to Russia on missile defense so that he can feel better about himself.
He’s an embarrassing amateur and the professionals on the world stage have taken his measure and found him lacking.
Pity we have the amateur in charge when we happen to be fighting 2 wars, have spiraling unemployment, and a tanking economy…
Anders on October 17, 2009 at 10:09 AM
.
So they chose to have a picture of Obama picking his nose?
Dasher on October 17, 2009 at 10:22 AM
The Big O is not interested in Berlin because the focus is not about him
Mig on October 17, 2009 at 10:28 AM
They wouldn’t allow him to bring his styrofoam pillars. No pillars? No Barry!
/It’s all about the “O”
Key West Reader on October 17, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Why should this man celebrate the downfall of his idols philosophy, while he is building his own wall to imprison U.S.
MSGTAS on October 17, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Well, he was in Paris for the 69th anniversary of the Nazi occupation…
unclesmrgol on October 17, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Steyn nails it.
Twenty years ago this fall, the Iron Curtain was coming down in Europe. Across the Warsaw Pact, the jailers of the Communist prison states lost their nerve, and the cell walls crumbled. Matt Welch, the editor of Reason, wonders why the anniversary is going all but unobserved: Why aren’t we making more of the biggest mass liberation in history?
Well, because to celebrate it would involve recognizing it as a victory over Communism. And, after the Left’s long march through the institutions of the West, most are not willing to do that. There’s the bad totalitarianism (Nazism) and the good totalitarianism (Communism), whose apologists and, indeed, fetishists can still be found everywhere, even unto the White House.
Western_Civ on October 17, 2009 at 5:51 PM
There are two possible reasons for him passing up the Berlin wall anniversary, besides the fact that he may have a DVD movie to watch in the WH on that day. One would be that prior to his inauguration humans lived in a state of original sin. As such what possible reason is there for him to talk about something that happened during those unenlightened times? The other reason would be that, unlike the majority of those celebrating, he might not agree that removal of the Berlin wall was, in fact, a good thing. Thus, the cerebral dissonance rattling around in his head from the need to make stuff up for his speech could lead to serious consequences, for him and for those standing around him.
boqueronman on October 17, 2009 at 7:48 PM
Iowawoman, I thought the same thing.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was Reagan’s baby. Obama isn’t Ronald Reagan.
I would also add with his communistic/socialistic friends and colleagues, the whole thing probably makes them feel a little squirmy. Seriously, is whatsherface Dunne going to make comments about his trip? Makes it a little impossible. Can’t exactly cheer the moment while at the same time, embrace the principles, eh.
GeeWhiz on October 18, 2009 at 12:33 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2