Obama's Berlin Speech: Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down

Naturally, one's reaction to Barack Obama's speech in Berlin is colored by one's opinion of Obama.

The lib media continue to analyze Obama's speech, but they aren't really offering much in the way of analysis. It's really just a lot of drooling.

For example, from the New York Times:

On Thursday evening in a glittering Berlin, Mr. Obama delivered a tone poem to American and European ideals and shared history.

...Europeans admire Mr. Obama’s political skills, and welcome his apparent readiness to respect opposing points of view. For many here, that raises the prospect of a sharp break with the policies of the Bush administration, especially in its first term, when the United States chose to ignore the Geneva Conventions at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, rejected the Kyoto accord on global warming and invaded Iraq, starting a war that some of America’s European allies opposed.

Yes, Obama represents what Europeans want from the U.S. They want America to be less powerful. Obama's their best hope to bring about that change.

Although European leaders aren't entirely sold on Obama yet, the crowd in Berlin ate up what he had to say. And so did the lib pundits in America.

Read some glowing reviews of Obama's speech here and here.

Conservatives found plenty to criticize in the speech.

Mark Levin offered some greatly needed balance to the libs' blind worship of Obama. He gave a dramatically different perspective on what the presidential wannabe had to say in Berlin.

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

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, Christians and Muslims and Jews cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

LEVIN: Right, they are the walls we must tear down.

He thinks he's Reagan and JFK. Sometimes he thinks he's Lincoln.

It's just... I mean... It's embarrassing to me to listen to this. The walls... The walls... They must come down.

Now keep in mind when Reagan gave that wall speech, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,' we were at bayonets with the enemy. It was a truly bold statement. He undertook the policies before that speech, during that speech, and after that speech to bring that wall down. And that took courage and leadership and foresight.

This guy shows up, the wall's already down! And so he's trying to project.

'Well, we gotta bring down a wall between these religions and that religion...'

Really? Are there fundamentalist Christians out there decapitating people? Are there fundamentalist Jews out there decapitating people? Are there fundamentalist Hindus and Buddhists, fundamentalists of all sorts? No, there's only the terrorists. There's only the terrorists doing it, the fundamentalists of one religion.

But he can't say that and he won't say that. It's just like he cannot say that the American military, the United States military is responsible for victory in Iraq or anywhere… He cannot bring himself to say it. And so we're left with: 'We're gonna the wall down between this one and that one and that one and this one.' And only he can do it. We don’t know how he can do it. We don't know what the hell he's even talking about half the time, and neither does he.

OBAMA: Will we acknowledge — 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...

LEVIN: See that is a cheap shot against our country.

This country does reject torture and does stand for the rule of law. And I am sick and tired of these creeps going overseas and badmouthing this country.

Let me be clear: We do not torture and we believe in the rule of law.

We're fighting this war in the most ethical way possible, and this clown doesn't get it.

He doesn't know how wars have been fought in the past, does he? He doesn't know how the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War, and the first World War, and the second World War, and the Korean War, and the Vietnam War were fought.

This has to be the quote unquote cleanest war I've ever seen, thanks in large part to technology. There hasn't been mass bombings. No, only Clinton did that, remember? From 39,000 feet? No, there hasn't been any of that. And in essence, he's damning his own country.

'There won't be torture when I'm president.'

Well, let me tell you something Barack: Listening to you is torture.

OBAMA: Will we — 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?

LEVIN: As I said, full of crap. It’s coming out of his ears.

The United States, and for that matter Europe, has all but open borders. People come in from all over the world, all kinds of backgrounds. We don't know whether they have diseases. We don't know half the time if they have criminal records. We don't know what their intention is. We open our health care system to them, our education system to them. So does most of Europe.

We don't have to apologize for a damn thing. We're supposed to stand here and beat ourselves up? For what?

You want this man to be your president? You're crazy.

OBAMA: People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment. This is our time.

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.

LEVIN: Let me tell you something: You're apologizing to a German audience about American conduct? You're a disgrace. I hadn't heard this before. You're apologizing to a German audience about America.

You idiot, we've been over there twice, and we lost hundreds of thousands of men cleaning up after Germany. You get that? Now we may not be perfect, but we don't need to explain that to the Germans or to anybody else for that matter.

I am sick of these people trying to apologize for nothing we need to apologize for. I am sick of these people not promoting the greatness of this country. I am sick of these people who do not respect the blood and the guts that have been spilled all over this world so that the Germans can gather there to listen to this idiot and spit on America yet again.

I, too, am sick of all the completely unnecessary apologies. I'm sick of the disrespect shown to America.

Obama said that he's proud to be an American citizen. That's nice. He can join his wife Michelle in being proud.

He told the people in Berlin that he loves America.

I wonder if the anti-American types, at home and abroad, heard that part of his speech.

I doubt it. If they did, they probably ignored it.

They believe it's OK to love the world. I don't think it's OK to love America.