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(Berlin, Germany). 100, 000 - I million expected: The location for Barack Obama`s one hour Berlin speech on Thursday July 24th will be the Tiergarten`s Victory Column, just one kilometer from the Brandenburg Gate. The Berlin stop follows Obama`s visits to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East and already comparisons are being drawn with the historic visits of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Ronald Reagan in 1983. Both presidents came to a Berlin that at the time stood and suffered at the crucible of Cold War tensions. Senator Obama, though, isn`t a President, but is the presumed Democrat contender for the elections this November. And the Berlin of 2008 is a different one - the Berlin Tourist Agency provides today´s tourists looking for the remains of the Wall with hand-held GPS systems that can magically guide them to key locations while providing pictures, videos and a historic commentary of Cold War events. Obama`s arrival also coincides with that point in the U.S election campaign where both he and the Republican Candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) need to both widen their middle-ground support on the home front and establish their credentials as credible Commanders in Chief abroad. Appeasing hard-core Liberals in New Hampshire and ingrained neo-Cons in Iowa isn`t sufficient enough to penetrate into the concerns of a national electorate now desperately scracthing to meet rising fuel and food bills.
The new millenium has underlined for many outside the U.S just how instrumental and powerful the resident of the Oval Office can be in terms of guiding, influencing and, as with George W. Bush, blocking global issues - so in many respects this is seen as a rare opportunity for Europeans, as well, to add their voices to a presidential campaign that many now recognise as being pivotal to European goals. It is a wry point of irony that while Obama tours the Middle East and Europe, McCain has made attempts to capture the media limelight by proudly venturing to the Internet. Astonishingly, this week will mark the first time that the Vietnam veteran will log on to cyberspace. And it´s a cyberspace that will be tuned to a vibrant and expectant Berlin as Senator Barack Obama, the Man of the Moment, finally takes the stage at 19.00 hrs to face his first European mass audience - and in real-time. |
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