I thought this rather odd. Berlin was important enough to visit in June during his presidential campaign, but not for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall? It just doesn't seem to make sense to me, being one of the 20th anniversary of one of the most important dates in the history of one of our close friends, Germany. It ought to be a particularly poignant anniversary for Angela Merkel as well, having been an Ossie. It seems akin to a president backing out of a 50th or 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
Barack is Too Busy: Obama Cancels Plans to Attend Berlin Wall Anniversary - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - InternationalObama Cancels Plans to Attend Berlin Wall Anniversary
US President Barack Obama has shelved his plans to attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will reportedly take his place at the Nov. 9 celebrations.
Germany is going to have to wait longer than expected for US President Barack Obama's first official visit. Citing government sources in Berlin, Reuters reported on Friday that Obama will not attend the anniversary festivities marking two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event will take place on Nov. 9 -- just two days before Obama embarks on a long-planned trip to Asia on Nov. 11.
According to the German television channel n-tv, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will stand in for the president. It is considered unlikely that her husband, the former President Bill Clinton, will accompany her.
Berlin is going all out for the anniversary, with such luminaries as Kofi Annan, Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa expected to be in attendance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing hard to complete ongoing coalition negotiations soon so that her government is fully formed in time for the festivities.
Despite Obama's absence, however, Merkel will get some face time with the US president in early November. She is planning to travel to Washington and will be addressing a joint session of US Congress on Nov. 3.
Obama has not visited Berlin since taking power. He was in Germany briefly in June, when he made stops in Dresden and at the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial. It was during that trip that Merkel extended the invitation for Obama to help Germany celebrate the fall of the Wall.
Merkel's government expressed understanding with Obama's scheduling difficulties, Reuters reported. Obama's first state visit to Berlin is now expected to take place in 2010.
Of course he has time to go on Letterman and to Copenhagen to pitch for Chicago.
Face it, the fall of the Soviet Union which proved that communism/socialism doesn't work quite as well as capitalism was a painful historic chapter for the democrats. Why would he want to go there to celebrate?
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
Surprisingly I would have thought that perhaps they would have extended an invitation to Nacy Reagan.
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
Germany has had recent threats of attacks against them and the German gov by Al Qaeda. Maybe the security services decided it would be prudent for him to not go there right now. They can give any rationale to the press that they want -
Bush visited the ME in some of the most volitile times including a trip on Christmas Eve to see the troops and so has Cheyney. Surely Iraq is 150X more dangerous then Germany. It sounds more like an excuse then it does an explanation. Then again as mentioned prior the Democrats probably wish to forget the Cold War years.
Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.
If he went, I'm sure somebody here would be asking why he was wasting time in Berlin when he has a war in Afghanistan and an economic crisis.
Yet he has time for Fox News.
"They want to test our feelings.They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and their newspapers."
Protester
"What economic Crisis"? He has just Pakistan $9.5 Billion Dollars, and still New Orleans stands in ruins, weird concept this guy has.Originally Posted by Mess
Now that is not fair to a lot of democrats, but for Obama, Pelosi, Ried et al; the liberal demagogues running the country currently- I feel you 100%
I doubt it.
I don't remember anyone questioning him for his visit to Normandy.
President Obama to visit Normandy beaches for D-Day 65th anniversary ceremonies
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
True. Some democrats were staunch anti-kommies. But most of them today, and I would hazard a guess, in the past 4 decades, were sorry to see socialism fail.
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
Right now its a group of 52 democrats protecting this country. Without the Blue Dogs the White and Blue in Red White and Blue would be banished from our shores. What the Blue Dogs did over the summer may turn out to be one of the most pivotal moments in American politics.
Well played, sir.
For what it's worth, I'm surprised by this also. He, or somebody equally symbolic, should be out there.
gunnut,
actually, some of the euros did-- the brits for instance. they didn't expect obama to show, so at the last second they had to awkwardly insert the queen in.I doubt it.
I don't remember anyone questioning him for his visit to Normandy.
President Obama to visit Normandy beaches for D-Day 65th anniversary ceremonies
The human mind cannot grasp the causes of phenomena in the aggregate. But the need to find these causes is inherent in man’s soul. And the human intellect, without investigating the multiplicity and complexity of the conditions of phenomena, any one of which taken separately may seem to be the cause, snatches at the first, the most intelligible approximation to a cause, and says: “This is the cause!"
-Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace
At least the "right wing loons" in this country didn't object.
The queen went after all?
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
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