After eight years of growls, grunts and gurgles from their government, it's clear many Americans are staggered by Barack Obama's verbal skills. I remember Maureen Dowd's reaction to Obama's "speech on race" was like a school marm praising her prize pupil: "You could tell it was personal, that he had worked hard on it, all weekend and into the wee hours."  He turned it in a little late, true, but we'll let it slide this time.

These days all it takes is a little alliteration, and they're swooning. Stateside FOBOs were oohing and ahing over the crowd of an estimated 200,000 that showed up to hear their candidate speak in Berlin.  But when you stop to think that a million and a half show up for Berlin's Love Parade every year it kinda puts things in perspective. 

200,000 is nothing.  Even Condie Rice knows if you want to make a real splash in Germany you need black leather and stilettos.  Obama could've played to a million if he'd showed up in something a little less conservative...


Maybe next time.

The speech itself has been criticized by some as fluff, and it had its moments to be sure, but there were the beginnings of an Obama Doctrine in there, too.  Flufflier moments included lines like...

The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

...lines which are there because they make such irresistible use of the metaphor of the wall — brilliant: Berlin. Wall. Get it? Get it? It's a little 1989, but I'm sure that and the Airlift are mainly how Berliners define themselves these days. Whenever I talk to any of my German friends we always end up talking about walls.  Or airlifts.  I mean, that's all they seem to understand.  Unless you're into leather, fisting, and David Hasselhoff.  And then that gives you a few more things to talk about.

The meat and potatoes of the speech reiterated Obama's hawkishness on Afghanistan*, which nicely balances out any suspicions of dovishness on Iraq.  It's a bit of a shell-game, but he is proving to the world, first and foremost, that he is no pacifist. "No one welcomes war," Obama said in Berlin. "But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO’s first mission beyond Europe’s borders is a success."  The two most oft-repeated words in his speech were "war" and "security". 

But aside from the odd and oddly telling turn of a phrase — "the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together" — I felt he summed up his philosophy in a delightful image from the metaphor of the day:

Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children.

He ended his set with a rousing rendition of "The Candy Man," his campaign's theme song:

Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two?
The Candy Man, oh the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good!

Who can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh
Soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie?
The Candy Man, the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good!

The Candy Man makes everything he bakes satisfying and delicious
Talk about your childhood wishes, you can even eat the dishes!

Oh, who can take tomorrow, dip it in a dream
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man, oh the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good!

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*Later, after touching down briefly in Paris, Obama emphasized the benefit of good trans-Atlantic relations this way, according to a worshipful Mo Dowd: “there is a concrete advantage to not only foreign leaders, but foreign populations liking the American president, because it makes it easier for Sarkozy to send troops into Afghanistan.”