Vote '08

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Here’s the full speech. (full transcript here)

Here’s what some are saying:

“To be sure, Obama’s critics will do their best to miss it.

But those who chose to give the most significant international policy address yet delivered by the man who would be president an honest hearing will be hard-pressed to suggest that he did not stand as tall as the great communicator in Berlin.” - The Nation

“The great illusion of the 1990s was that we were entering an era of global convergence in which politics and power didn’t matter. What Obama offered in Berlin flowed right out of this mind-set. This was the end of history on acid.” - David Brooks of the New York Times

“…it was, in the end, more Reagan than JFK. Obama is said to feed off the energy of a crowd, and if this is true, the subdued mood of his Berlin audience took its toll. It was not perfunctory, or tired. Merely satisfactory.” - Shane Danielsen of the Guardian (UK)

“In a way that is so typical of Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee’s much hyped speech in Berlin today sounded grand and important, but contained nothing but platitudes and leftist, and multicultural, rah-rah. What it really came down to, after a long history lesson on the Berlin Airlift, was Obama the messiah giving the world a giant pep talk.” - RedState.com

“George W. Bush is yesterday, the Texas version of the arrogant world power. Obama is all about today — the “everybody really just wants to be brothers and save the world” utopia. As for us, we who sometimes admire and sometimes curse this somewhat anemic, pragmatic democracy, we will have to quickly get used to Barack Obama, the new leader of a lofty democracy that loves those big nice words — words that warm our hearts and alarm our minds.” - Der Spiegel

The Washington Post’s editorial page asked several folks for their first impressions; read them here.

That’s a glimpse of others’ opinions.. now, what did you think?

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