If it’s not a bummer, he’d rather not trip

President Obama apparently will not travel to Germany to the attend the 20th-anniversary celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The German government is “going all out for the anniversary,” but Obama, it seems, can’t be arsed.
Rick Richman offers a series of good reasons why Obama should reconsider. One of them is this: “it is an opportunity for Obama to give a speech in which he does not apologize for his country but celebrates the triumph of freedom that has been the driving force of American history from its beginning through his own election.”
But perhaps Obama doesn’t like giving that speech. He certainly didn’t do it well the last time he was in Germany when, as Richman reminds us, he credited the fall of the wall to the “world standing as one” and failed even to mention the names of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
Obama will represent the U.S. as a supplicant and he will represent us as a penitent. If those roles aren’t available, one suspects he would just as soon stay home.
UPDATE: Don’t miss Abe Greenwald’s trenchant comments on Obama’s decision to skip the event in Berlin.

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