Obama's Berlin Speech Fails the Presidential Test By KT McFarland

The cardinal rule of presidential speechmaking is knowing the audiences you're talking to - all of them. Sen. Obama failed the test in Berlin. As a former speechwriter for several presidents, cabinet officers and members of Congress, I can attest to the great care given to crafting speeches dealing with national security issues, lest they be misinterpreted by any of the several audiences listening. Sen. Obama's mistake in Berlin was to assume the only audiences for his words were the people sitting in front of him and his most Left-wing Democrat supporters. He gave them a speech they adored, because it sounded just like one an articulate and impassioned European socialist would make, only more eloquent and more artfully delivered. Berliners loved it. But Berliners don't vote in American elections.

What about audiences around the world? How do they interpret, "The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand"? Are the poorer nations of the world to understand that a President Obama would have Americans give up their hard earned wealth and share equally with them? That sounds suspiciously like socialism, if not communism – which is exactly what Americans fought the Cold War to defeat. If so, isn't Sen. Obama offering the poor nations of the world a vision, which Americans will not support?

He also pledged that "the walls between ...natives and immigrants... are the walls we must tear down." What are the implications for illegal American immigrants? Is Sen. Obama signaling a blanket amnesty and equal access to all assistance programs to all immigrants, legal or otherwise? Immigration is considered a hot button issue throughout the United States and our failure to enact immigration legislation indicative of our lack of consensus. Does Sen. Obama have the right to call for a new immigration policy without first lining up American support?

Sen. Obama called for the "The walls between religions [to] come down." How are Muslim extremists to interpret this statement? It sounds rather like what they’re calling for too, but under their vision we all convert to Islam, live under Shar'ia law and the Caliphate. [more...]