NYC Letter: Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall, Uh, Walls!

Countdown 96 days to go

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner'

John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
thirty-fifth President of the United States,
affirming America's commitment to fighting Communism
BERLIN June 26, 1963 (BBC)

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Ronald Wilson Reagan,
fortieth President of the United States,
reaffirming America's commitment to fighting Communism
BERLIN June 12, 1987 (Reagan Foundation)

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

Mr. Obama,
not a President of the United States,
affirming the European view of America
BERLIN July 24, 2008 (HuffPo)

We admit that a selective edit can make Mr. Obama look an object of fun. But we invite you to read the whole of his speech at the above link and judge whether Mr. Obama isn't an object of fun of his own making.

Here for instance, Mr. Obama acts as America's presumptive Apologist-in-Chief, affirming nothing bad without America having a hand in it:

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

When in the EU, observe the EU pieties.

And when sympathy puts in an appearance, well, it must be shared in the broadest possible way:

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

"From all over the globe" but with a strangely high incidence of fatalities from the State of New York, or more precisely the City of New York and in the broadest relevant context, Americans. [We reflect.] Having reflected we recall it was actually thousands of Americans, not "thousands from all over the globe".

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.

What exactly does this mean? What is the nature of these unstandable walls? Does Mr. Obama so construe the EU, a wall between America and her allies? Isn't there a natural divide between the native and immigrant, between host and guest? And how will Mr. Obama tear down the divides between Christian and Jew and Muslim without mucking in their respective theologies? Or, in what is touted as a major policy address, does Mr. Obama have something less ambitious in mind? [We consider a less ambitious read.] Is he simply exhorting us to "be nice"? Ah, North Korea, Burma, Iran, Libya, Cuba -- only a few of the nations eager to fall in line with Mr. Obama and his brave new approach to world affairs.

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

"All of our people", "our moment", "our time" -- for whom does Mr. Obama presume to speak?

Meanwhile, while Mr. Obama's unexamined propositions make banner headlines, Mr. McCain makes the back-pages.

McCAIN VISITS GERMAN RESTAURANT -- IN OHIO
COLUMBUS, Ohio July 24, 2008 (AP)