A Berlin footnote

Introduced by Secretary of State Clinton, President Obama made a surprise appearance by video at yesterday’s festivities celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago. The White House video of Obama’s remarks is below; video of Secretary Clinton’s address together with Obama’s remarks as broadcast at the festivities is posted here, where we learn that FOX News was the only cable network to carry Obama’s address live.
Both Secretary Clinton and President Obama emphasized Obama’s world-historic story. Clinton likens Obama’s election to the fall of the Wall. Obama draws the moral of the story. “Few would have foreseen … that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it.”
Obama’s brief remarks are an exercise in bowdlerization, circumlocution, evasion. Omitted from the remarks, among other things, is any mention of the Soviet Union or Communism, Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Pope John Paul. Obama neither decries the villains nor salutes the heroes of the story. Rather, Obama celebrates himself. He is an agent of destiny. He is the fulfillment of history.

Via Hot Air.

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