Obama's Ego Trip

I don't really get what Obama thinks he can accomplish with this big speech in Germany. He does realise, doesn't he, that Germans can't vote in the election? I suppose the case could be made that he hopes to impress US voters with a big European audience cheering him on, as if it's some kind of proof of his foreign policy credentials. But it would seem to me that not a lot of voters are going to be impressed by a swooning European audience.

Either that or he's bought into the whole "rock star" thing- first this big German event and next his convention speech in the football stadium. Given his previous form, I tend to think that this is more about his ego than anything else.

Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted "present" nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.

It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history -- "generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment" -- when, among other wonders, "the rise of the oceans began to slow." As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, "Moses made the waters recede, but he had help." Obama apparently works alone.

One last question- anyone else hoping that the big event fizzles out? I mean, why does Barack Obama think that thousands of Germans will turn out to see a no-experience US Senator, with no ties to Germany, give a speech aimed at an American audience?

UPDATE - Note too, that the Obama campaign is trying to keep tight control over the event, dictating what German citizens can and cannot bring to a German landmark-

No signs or banners permitted.