David Broder says that ‘July has been a cruel month for McCain.’ If Obama gives a good speech in Berlin today, July will get just a little bit crueler. The New York Times, Spiegel, and Time all have coverage of Obama’s appearance.
Although the Kennedy name is almost inevitably invoked whenever Barack Obama is mentioned in the German media, there is more to his popularity. The cover of the current issue of Zitty, a local Berlin magazine, shows a photo of Obama accompanied by the headline “I’m black and that’s a good thing” — a reference to Berlin’s openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, who strongly supported Obama’s request to speak at the Brandenburg Gate and had once publicly announced, “I’m gay and that’s a good thing.” Jarring as that headline may be, it partly explains why Obama is likely to receive the warmest welcome given to any senior American politician in Berlin since Kennedy visited in 1963 and made his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.
His speech will begin around 1:15pm Eastern Time.
Update [2008-7-24 14:1:3 by BooMan]: Here’s the transcript. So…what’d you think?
