I choose the words at random - and as you told me: “I don’t know which online translator that you tried failed miserably on this particular task.” Well at least I am not running for U.S. President because failing miserably could be catastrophic.

Regards,
Autone

I don’t mean to imply that he didn’t care about the crowd on hand, but the speech’s subject matter was crafted to appeal to Berliners only on a surface level, while containing a deeper subtext directed towards the people at home.

That’s simply to be expected from someone who is in the midst of a Wahlkampf. And as an American who travels to Berlin every year, I was DELIGHTED that he chose my second-favourite city on earth to speak in.

I believe that he will - as President - at least attempt to reach out to the rest of the world, so even if his capacity to create the deep changes that people expect is nil, he still has my vote.

Es gibt doch keine bessere Alternative, oder?

@ Pacze Moj: Believe me, communism is not at ALL dead as a subject in America … the ghost of the USSR still has a powerful effect on people of my parent’s generation, and they are the ones who vote.

I read a book yesterday that illuminated the Bush-voting sector of the American public better than anything I’ve ever seen … I highly recommend it for some disturbing insight into the American redneck psyche: “Deer Hunting with Jesus”

And I was asking about the mood not because I expected massive cheer-and-applause but just because the cameras did not really catch it while Obama was speaking. And since you are a media expert and were a live witness, I thought you could give a fancy report…

Communism—even though it was much more concrete behind the concrete of the Berlin wall, never had the same overwhelming negative attitude in Europe as it had in the US. The enemy was not communism. The enemy has always been dictatorship of all kind.

Depends on which Europe you mean, I think. In the West, probably. In the East, not so much. Lithuania did, after all, ban all Communist and Nazi symbols a few weeks ago. Many countries in Western Europe only ban Nazi symbols, no?

The entire Cold War metaphor is worn out by now, though. Communism is dead (or transformed into something different and Chinese), and constantly trying to make every new international problem fit its mold is asking for trouble and misunderstanding.

When I hear Obama talking about terrorists and using communism as a mirror, I tend to doubt if he knows what he’s talking about. And, like you say, I don’t think Cold War emotions really hit home in most places anymore, whether it be Western Europe or America.

From the television, I had the feeling that most of the applause was more like courtesy than filled with enthusiasm. And Gale Tufts who was in the crowd commented tonight that she was impressed by the great silence of so many people “just listening”.