Obama in Berlin, Part II

Finally, after a false alarm or two, a loudspeaker announced Barack Obama, and he came out. Everyone (even the tall people) rose and stood on tip-toe, brandishing their cell phones and digital cameras, so I saw nothing. But I clapped.

The speech began, and I was disappointed. It sounded too rehearsed, too brief, and (to borrow from the Guardian reporter who live-blogged the event) too platitudinous. In hindsight, reading Obama's speech in transcript, I may have done the part about Berlin a disservice. But there were terrible lines, full of the personification and metaphors I'd expect of Bush: "flame of freedom," "retreat would have allowed Communism to march across America," "dry up the well of extremism," etc. And he retreaded, horribly retreaded, everything I never want to hear again, about fighting terrorism, Taliban and al Qaeda, "needing" German soldiers in Afghanistan, stopping Iran's nuclear ambitions, etc. – even Communism on the march. [It's not that I object to stopping terrorism, it's just that, de facto, it is a tiny problem in the world compared to war, human rights abuses, and poverty. It should be dealt with quietly and competently within the bounds of the law, not made into a major political issue that feeds into paranoia and a disproportionate concern with one's own real or putative welfare.] Besides, I didn't think there was much original or clever analysis.

As for the crowd, it appeared to be moderately skeptical. We were not in a frenzy of enthusiasm, but favourably inclined, with some reservations. What unexpectedly met with a roar of approval was Obama's remark about Zimbabwe. What met with even stronger approval was his unequivocal support of nuclear disarmament. That was incredibly surprising and a high point of his speech, I thought; the kind of firm and reasonable stance one would hope of him as President. I also liked his amicable reference to Russia, which was surprising, too. When, however, he talked about Afghanistan and its drugs being sold in our streets, I felt that the reaction of those around me was, "Is that supposed to be a bad thing?" A few also laughed derisively when he said, "I know my country has not perfected itself."

But for a while I was distracted, because behind me there was a group of environmental activists who wanted to perform some action. I suspected at first that they wanted to burst onto the stage and disrupt the speech, so I asked, with a displeased mien, what they were planning to do. But it turns out that they were only holding up T-shirts that spelled out, "Stop CO2." So they waveringly sat on the shoulders of people and hoisted the shirts in the air. Possibly they had the order wrong; at any rate, one nearby person asked another what the message was, and he, having looked over his shoulder, replied, "Stop U2." Hilarious! So the activists were friendly after all; one held onto my shoulder as she rose into the air, and another later asked pardon for the shirt that was drooping onto my head. No security people came to haul them off to jail, either. Still, I am sick and tired of the global warming stuff, was annoyed by the World Wildlife Fund T-shirts saying, "I want you to tackle climate change" that part of the audience wore, and think (as I said above) that war, human rights, and poverty are the truly important issues.

When the speech had ended, one or two people expressed disappointment that it had been so short. I felt the same way; I had expected not to hear a word through bad acoustics, but the acoustics were superb, so I heard clearly, and I found the speech itself accessible. We very, very slowly flocked through the gap in the fence, only to have to practically crawl along a good portion of the Straße des 17. Juni, as the announcer told us again to walk slowly and that the gates were wide open, and we internally laughed at the bitter, bitter irony. Then I was free to walk home.

But before I reached the gap in the fence, I heard as one person, bearing a beige banner that I couldn't read, was asked about Obama. He said, more or less, "I love the guy, but I want him to be himself and not some centrist that he thinks people want him to be." Exactly. Honestly, until two or three months ago I hadn't expected Obama to do so much pandering; the double Israeli-American flag pin at his AIPAC speech baffled me. I find him quite intelligent and able to think for himself, pleasingly capable of being natural and unselfconscious, and a good (though not great) speaker and interviewee. But I only hope that, when (and if, but McCain's sad petulance and overall air of defeat indicate that this may not be an issue) he is President, the transparent and worrisome sops to the prejudiced will stop.