Obama Woos Berlin, McCain Snubs New Orleans

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jul 24, 2008 7:45PM

Earlier today (er, tonight?), Barack Obama spoke before a cheering crowd at the Victory Column in Berlin. It was the latest stop for the Democratic Presidential candidate on his O-Force One Tour of Europe. During the speech, he stressed the importance of strengthening withering ties between Europe and the United States:

Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt, there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.

Here are some words we're guessing will appear in MSM accounts of the speech: heroic, stoic, charisma, and about a thousand references to JFK. And miraculously the word "change" appeared only once in the speech (in the above passage) by our count.

Meanwhile, Obama's Republican opponent, Arizona Senator John McCain, canceled a trip to New Orleans, a city he has had a sketchy relationship with (at best). His campaign blamed the weather, referring to now-Tropical Storm Dolly, which made landfall yesterday near the Texas-Mexico border, and denied it has anything to do with the recent Mississippi River oil spill. Today's weather forecast for New Orleans? Sunny with a high of 93 degrees and "only a 20% chance for an isolated thunderstorm."