Obama: Who Does He Think He Is?

"For the first few months of the campaign, the question about Obama was: Who is he? The question now is: Who does he think he is?"
--Charles Krauthammer

Obama in Berlin:
"Ich bin ein beginner"

For all Obama's rhetoric about Americans visiting Europe and not being able to say anything more than "merci beaucoup" is it arrogant of Obama to go to Germany and deliver a speech entirely in English?

Apparently, the only foreign language Obama knows is Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia. No doubt something he learned while at the Muslim Madrassa he attended while living in Indonesia.

The speech itself (transcript here) was mostly pap. Hardly up to the soaring standards of speechifying that Obama is famous for when there is a teleprompter present.

He spoke as if he was running for President of the world: "People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time."
The crowd, which was estimated at uo to 200,000 loved it all. But then, Germans have been known to go a bit overboard for messianic speakers in the past.

Glenn Beck summed it up perfectly: "Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for president of the United States or Mr. Universe."

Even before Obama's trip, some in the media began to see through the style over substance campaign that has typified Obama's efforts.

As usual, Charles Krauthammer sees through the fog and smoke:

The Audacity of Vanity
By Charles Krauthammer
Real Clear Politics
July 18, 2008

In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history -- "generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment" -- when, among other wonders, "the rise of the oceans began to slow." As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, "Moses made the waters recede, but he had help." Obama apparently works alone.
...
Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when "our planet began to heal." As I recall -- I'm no expert on this -- Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas.

The Messiah Trumps Judaism's Holiest Place?

Early Thursday morning before leaving Jerusalem for Berlin Obama visited the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. A handful of his supporters showed up with banners and signs in Hebrew to welcome the new messiah. When Jerusalem Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld was asked if this was typical behavior for candidates visiting the Wall he replied simply "No."

One man at the Wall who apparently didn't buy the "change and hope" snakeoil repeatedly shouted: "Obama, Jerusalem is our land! Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale!"

Dems Nervous as Obama's Poll Numbers Flatten?

It seems some in the "news" media cheerleading section for Obama are getting a bit nervous.

Obama Trip Overload
Joe Klein
Time Magazine
July 23, 2008

Lots of speculation on the web, and in whispering circles, about why Obama's foreign trip--a slam-dunk success substantively and in photo-op terms (Obama laughing with Petraeus in the helicopter was the best)--hasn't resulted in a polling bump. The emerging conventional wisdom seems to be that the trip is a bit too grand, too...presumptuous and voters are wary of that. (And presumption, of course, always comes with the subterranean tinge of racism.) Maybe so.

Oh yes... voters aren't buying the snakeoil so that makes them racist! How predictable. Klein goes on to beg commenters at his blog to "calm down" suggesting that surely Obama's poll numbers will rise just as the anointed one has promised the waters of the ocean will recede!

Demonstrating the objectivity for which the "mainstream" "news" media is famous for, Michael Scherer, another reporter at Time had this to add:

As we all huddle around our televisions to watch the German masses cheer, as we prepare to read yet another magazine cover story featuring Obama's awesome good-lookingness, as we remind ourselves once again that this is a once-in-a-generation change election....

Remember now, these are "real journalists." Not like those guys at "Faux" News.

Related News

Death Row Killer's Last Words are Plea for Obama Vote

Moments before he was put to death for participating in the savage killing of Marcus Gentry, Dale Leo Bishop urged Americans to vote for Barack Obama. "For those who oppose the death penalty and want to see it end, our best bet is to vote for Barack Obama because his supporters have been working behind the scenes to end this practice," Bishop said.

Bishop had requested the death penalty when found guilty of the murder of Gentry, but later changed his mind... Bishop was executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening. One less vote for Obama!

The Missing Obama Thesis

Obama and the case of the missing 'thesis'
By Jim Popkin,
NBC News
July 24, 2008

Conservative provocateurs have been hunting for it. Investigative journalists have been on the prowl, too. Even a former professor has been searching through old boxes for his copy of it. But today Barack Obama made it official: He doesn’t have and can’t release any copies of the thesis-length paper he wrote 25 years ago while a senior at Columbia University.
...
Journalists began hounding Columbia University for copies of the musty document. Conservative bloggers began wondering if the young Obama had written a no-nukes screed that he might come to regret.
...
“A thesis entitled Soviet Nuclear Disarmament, written at the height of The Cold War in 1983, might shed some light upon what Barack Obama thought about our most pressing foreign policy issue for 40-plus years (U.S.-Soviet Relations),” he wrote in an e-mail to NBC News.

So what does the missing paper say, and could it be politically damaging to Obama?