Posted on 07/09/2008 12:26:12 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
BERLIN (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has slammed a request by Barack Obama to give a speech this month before the Brandenburg Gate as inappropriate, her deputy spokesman said Wednesday.
The conservative leader said that while she would be pleased to meet the US Democratic presidential hopeful, it would be wrong for him to hold a "campaign rally" at the historic symbol of German unity.
"It is unusual to do electioneering abroad," spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters.
"It is unusual to hold election rallies abroad. No German candidate for high office would even think of using the National Mall (in Washington) or Red Square in Moscow for a rally because it would not be seen as appropriate."
Authorities in the capital have confirmed that Obama plans to visit Berlin on July 24 and is interested in speaking at the foot of the Brandenburg Gate.
The left-leaning government of the city-state, which has the sole right to approve such a request, has not yet made a formal decision but Mayor Klaus Wowereit gave his backing Tuesday.
Steg said Merkel had "limited understanding" for such a request and found the Obama team's initiative "a bit odd". But he said it was up to candidates such as Obama to decide what was "in good taste".
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
B. Hussein Obama is a buffoon.
Nuremberg *would* be a better fit for him.
Ich bin ein Scheisskopf.
Maybe he could grow a toothbrush mustache between now and then and work on his raised arm salute.
Ich bin ein Scheisskopf.
And Kopf is head.
More demonstrative than calling someone a dumbkopf.
Sh!thead.
He's an affirmative action idiot. Who can't even fathom how it would be for a Japanese politician to campaign at Gettysburg memorial, Arizona memorial or Iwo Jima monument.....
The funny thing is that he's GOT to be smart cause of course he went to HARVARD. We know that you're a genius to go there... just ask them.
no cussing...hahahahaha
I guess he’s too busy campaigning in Europe to go to Iraq.
But unless right of center Americans get over their funk the haloed one WILL BE the 44th POTUS, and by 2011 he WILL control all three branches of government. Then the so called working Americans, read that as consumers of taxpayer largesse, will continually vote en masse to preserve their rice bowl. By 2016 the New Deal and Great Society programs will look like something designed by Barry Goldwater in comparison to the the haloed one's America.
Silly me. I knew that. LOL Thanks.
American liberals have no shame. They used Paul Wellstone’s funeral as a political rally, so this is par for the course if you are a stinking liberal (redundant).
Obummer wants his John Kennedy momment. He doesn’t realize that Kennedy went there as President and made comments in support of the German people. Obummer wants to make comments to support himself.
That was my thought. He wants to go there and ala JFK, proclaim himself a donut.
Go, Angela!
The guy is desparate for some stature, and doesn’t realize it comes with time. He’s an empty suit, and he knows it better than we do.
FANTASTIC! That is easily the best poster I’ve seen.
BINGO
Just when you think this man's hubris can't get any worse - it does.
Truly mind-boggling.
Will be yet another case of a huge misjudgment? Will he, once again, have to change course?
He had to take down his Presidential seal within days - illegal, a crime - and he just had to reconnoiter on the raffle scheme for seats at his coronation - that was also illegal.
Not only does he not have good judgement, and despite being a lawyer doesn't have a clue about simple legalities - but evidently his judgment in advisers isn't too solid either.
Yep. He brings a lot of change alright. Whatever he does/says today, he will need to change tomorrow.
OBAMA. CHANGE ON EVERY ISSUE/STAND EVERYDAY. ................. YOU CAN BELIEVE IT.
LOL! I love the graphic! :)
Like the end we see departing?
Obama Over Germany?
Great point.
Well, at least the donut is apropos. When JFK did it, it was a “lost in translation” flub. In 0bambi’s case, it’s the truth. It signifies his campaign. “I’m 0bama, and I got nothin’ “
... German Chancellor Tells Obama “Nein” on Speech Location
It is just a matter of the appropriate backdrop. Negotiations are underway between the Obama advance team and the office of the Berlin Mayor, Klaus Wowereit, to hold the speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, close to the line that traces the route of the Berlin Wall. The newly built US embassy nestles alongside. So too does a museum honouring John F. Kennedy. If, as expected, Mr Obama is going to deliver a phrase in German (the insider tip is: “I can listen!” — “ich kann zuhoeren!”) and fling out his arms in the direction of Russia and Central Europe, then this surely is the place.
But, say advisers to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, it would be tantamount to giving the German stamp of approval to Mr Obama, an undue interference in the election campaign.
Technically the decision lies with the Berlin Mayor, a flamboyant, openly gay Social Democrat, who quite relishes the idea of irritating the conservative Chancellor. The toing and froing between the various seats of power in Berlin is thus likely to continue until the last minute.
I will stop
I will stop at nothing
Say the right things when electioneering
I trust I can rely on your vote
Or to go to Alaska (you know, the largest of our 57 states). But he has plenty of time to go to Berlin.
This guy is an entirely new kind of jerkoff.
He’s a black hole.
He wants to rebuild the Berlin Wall.
He will build a wall to keep Americans in the U.S., to rape them of their accumulated wealth to share with his voters.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043035/posts
Obama is a vacuum into which reason, common sense and intelligence disappear, never to be seen again.
This guy has accomplished a couple of things I once thought was damn near impossible. First, he has made me actually nostalgic for Hillary - cankles, cackles and all. Second, he has turned me into a strong fan of John McCain. So all I can say to Obama is ‘keep it up!’, because you might turn out to be exactly what is needed to unite the Republican Party again.
Did Kennedy use the wrong words. Seems I may have heard of that at one time, but it isn’t clear to me now.
Thank you for the background. Very nice.
Maybe some German’s are upset about this because they know a dictator wannabe when they see one. They’ve spent the last 60+ years trying to apologize for their brutal anti-semitism during WW2, now an anti-semitic US prez candidate wants to campaign on their soil. Barack Obama: The Global Candidate.
I thought I remembered him using the wrong words too, but was corrected the other day that it was just a long held urban myth, and that he’d actually used the proper phrase and grammar.
"Berliner" is also German slang for what we would call a jelly doughnut, so many non-Germans thought that he had made a mistake. The Germans, for whom the speech was intended, had no problem whatsoever understanding his meaning. Even in those days the MSM had an agenda... sadly.
If I went today to NYC and proclaimed that I was a New Yorker, only the idiots would think that I was claiming to be either a magazine or a Chrysler. :-)
And to think he wanted to reach out the parts of the world the Bush admin. had forsaken. He’s already in trouble.
Thanks Smedley. I’m sure you weren’t alone. Take care.
It makes perfect sense to me, what he said. I don’t know German, but the concept is very clear.
I appreciate your response.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/jfk_berliner.htm
Empty suits think they are far better than they are. A good man knows his limitations. An empty suit has confidence in his inexperience.
Me too! I never thought I’d regard Hillary as almost a statesmanlike figure, but compared to Obama, she sure is. And while I have disliked McCain since day one, he suddenly looks - well, like the guy I’m going to vote for. Pretty amazing.
Unless a Scheisskopf is something to be eaten, the proper German would be "Ich bin Scheisskopf." Using "ein" changes the meaning completely.
When JFK stood before the Brandenburg Gate and said, "Ich bin ein Berliner," what he was actually saying in German was "I am a jelly doughnut." To say "I am a Berliner," he should have said "Ich bin Berliner."
Not for the first World-Elected President. Why, the election will be a mere formality by then, a little something to mark time between now and the coronation.
We can hope for over-reach but I think the American public is numb enough to it by now not to notice his Nuremburg-in-Colorado moment or the fact that he's on a triumphant world tour before he's even been voted in. Hussein's handlers figure they're giving the Germans the President they want, and see nothing presumptuous about it. Certainly if the newly-crowned Nancy Pelosi can travel the world conducting her own foreign policy a Presidential candidate can do the same. A reminder to anyone snickering - she got away with it.
Or to be more accurate: Horse-s*it Head.
:)
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