If John McCain somehow defies the current odds and defeats Barack Obama in November, analysts might look at a particular moment as the turning point. At no time and in no appearance has Obama revealed his worldview more vividly than in his appearance and speech before a reported 200,000 or more during his stop in Berlin on his recent grand tour of the Middle East and Europe. I was so struck by a couple of the bites on TV that I printed and read the full text of the speech, and it was most revealing, not so much for any policy pronouncements, of which there were none of any significance, but rather because of what it revealed about the man and his disingenuous and dangerous message.
This speech could have been the transnational progressive manifesto, because it reflected the worldview, not simply of a liberal internationalist of which there are many in America across the political spectrum, of one who has no concept of how American power and purpose has shaped and led the free world we have known since 1945 and no appreciation of how American led power and politics will be necessary to insure free world leadership in this century. From there, it goes without saying that he has no appreciation for the concept of American exceptionalism, which has informed and provided moral context for our foreign policy for over two centuries. In short, there was in evidence no appreciation of the realities that make his “can’t we all just come together and get along” appeal a trip through fantasy land. (David Brooks called it a “Disney” moment.)
Does he really believe in “global citizenship” as an objective reality? Does he think that the Berlin wall came down because “there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one”? Does he really think that the success of the Berlin airlift of 1948-49 to which he referred was a testament to anything other than the stubbornness of an American President, a Democrat no less, along with this country’s prowess and perseverance? And does he truly believe that “this moment”, to which he refers on almost every campaign stop as a metaphor for his election as President, is the equivalent of a Godsend for the people of the world he addressed from Berlin? If so, such naivete, such arrogance, such presumption and demagoguery, is fraudulent to his base of supporters and even worse than that, it may succeed.
