Given my intense dislike for nobama and those around him, I really hate to write this, but:
The crowd size remarks are very unfair as this latest speech was invitation only.
One bright spot is that the crowd was estimated at 4500. Interesting, since AIR, 6000 tickets were available.
It seems that FReepers as well as the media have short memories. We ALL poo-pooed the crowd size in '08 because of the concert. To use the drop in attendance to illustrate Zer0's waning popularity is intellectually dishonest.
The article mentioned it was an invitation-only crowd.
The crowd size remarks are very unfair as this latest speech was invitation only."
Yes, Obama has a cover story to explain the poor turnout. Let's go a step further now and ask why such a major address was "invitation only"?
Perhaps his German hosts suggested there could be trouble with the crowd (protests, hecklers) unless it was strictly controlled? Regardless of the reason, the small crowd tells us what we need to know - Obama is not very popular in Berlin, and has made a precipitous decline in the eyes of the Germans since his visit five years ago.