I wonder if Kerry is in any position to help out here: Brandenburg Gate-Gate

[beachmom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,565080,00.html

Obama Reacts to Debate in Berlin

By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington, D.C.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she finds Barack Obama's plan to give a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin a bit "odd." Obama's spokesman now says Obama will find a Berlin location for his speech that makes the most sense for him and his hosts.

Barack Obama's campaign team has responded to Angela Merkel's apparent discomfort over his bid to hold a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. A spokesman for the chancellor said his choice to hold the speech at the historic setting was "odd" and that Merkel has "little sympathy for the Brandenburg Gate being used for electioneering and has expressed her doubts about the idea." But Obama's planners are still pushing ahead as they prepare the visit in less than two weeks' time.

"Senator Obama looks forward to his visit to Germany and his opportunity to meet with the chancellor," Obama spokesman Bill Burton told the Associated Press on Wednesday He has considered several sites for a possible speech, and he will choose one that makes the most sense for him and his German hosts."

...

A Misinterpreted Gesture

Obama's advisors may also have been taken aback for an altogether different reason. His strategists had hoped that Merkel would take the choice of Berlin and the Brandenburg Gate for the speech as a compliment. Obama's advisors currently view Merkel as the most influential politician in Europe. They perceive French President Nicolas Sarkozy as playing an important role, but he hasn't been in office as long as Merkel. For his part, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is stuck in a domestic crisis. According to British press reports, the Democratic presidential hopeful will just make a brief visit in London.

Ultimately, the bickering over Obama's Berlin speech is a setback for his team. A perfectly oiled campaign machine helped drive Obama to triumph over Hillary Clinton. But trips abroad are new territory for his political strategists -- and journeys abroad are both difficult to plan and fraught with opportunities for missteps. But his team is hoping to avoid pitfalls through good planning and to be able to present the candidate in a presidential manner, and they could still succeed in that mission with triumphant Berlin appearance by Obama.

But the tumult in Berlin also underscores a bit of foreign policy naivité on the part of Obama's travel planners. Merkel's clear choice of words may be surprising, but it wouldn't have been difficult to imagine that the German government would give a tepid response to his plan to hold a speech at such a highly symbolic historical location.

And the German government isn't just reacting out of respect for Bush during the twilight of his presidency, as some reports have alleged. The respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported this week that a member of the Bush delegation approached Merkel's foreign policy advisor, Christoph Heusgen, at the G-8 summit in Japan to discuss misgivings about Obama's planned speech. The government is also acting out of respect for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has long enjoyed strong ties to Germany and good personal relationships with a number of high-level government officials in Berlin. And it is in no way a given that McCain will lose the election.

Personally, I am highly unimpressed with Angela Merkel here. She could have done this behind the scenes; to do so openly was a clearly political move in favor of Bush and McCain. But .... it is also true that perhaps the Obama campaign didn't think the whole thing through. Maybe Kerry could help out here? I am sure he has some connections?

[MBS]

1. Merkel is a conservative and (despite her discomfort

with W's unsolicited "massage" a year or two ago) she may have been listening to the Bushies in how to respond.

I'm an Obama supporter, but, in all honesty, I think that his campaign has been far from flawless since the primaries ended. a little more diplomacy BEFORE this became public would have been helpful here.

[beachmom]

2. Well, I don't think "conservative" is all that relevant because

Germany is so different from the U.S. I just don't see automatic alliances between German conservatives and American ones. For example, Tony Blair was from the Labour party and was in alliance with Bush. I also could see Cameron (the Tory, who will probably be prime minister at some point in England) having much in common with Obama. Honestly, I was very surprised with Merkel getting involved this way. She is usually quite cautious. I will add that the Germans I talk to, anyway, are pleased with her leadership in Germany. She is not going anywhere.

[MBS]

3. agree that Merkel's "conservatism" is not the same level

(thank God) as Bush. But NYT yesterday suggested that her interactions with a liberal rival (forgot what post he holds.. . but someone who also spoke out and/or encouraged the Brandenberg gate idea) may have played a role in her going public on this. Anyway, it's unfortunate situation, that's for sure.

[MBS]

4. July 11 German report speculating on role of Bush in Brandenburg gate-gate

This makes sense to me. See http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/2008/07/11/obama-divides-the-grand-coalition/obama-troubles-german-politicians.html

Will the US presidential candidate be allowed to speak in front of the Brandenburger Gate on 24 July? This question has caused much heated debate among Germany's top politicians - with Chancellor Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) and the Vice Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party, SPD) at odds over the issue.
Germany's leading diplomat said he liked Obama's plan – whereas the Chancellor found it rather "inconvenient".

The Chancellor is said to be opposed to the plan, BILD reveals, as the White House has put heavy pressure on the Chancellor via different political channels.


The message the White House is trying to put across is: For now the Bush Government and the Republican Party are in charge. If Obama holds his speech in front of the Brandenburger Gate it will be seen as an "unfriendly gesture" towards the US President.

During the G8 summit in Japan US-diplomats tried to put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel. Only a few hours later, a government spokesperson in Berlin received a phone call from Japan with the instruction to publish the second thoughts of the Chancellor Merkel about Obama's speech.

. . .
The argument is continuing among politicians. Foreign Minister Steinmeier said in an interview with the TV newscast Frankfurter Rundschau: "The Americans have decisively contributed to rescuing the city of Berlin. That's why we should allow them to hold speeches at historic places like the Brandenburger Gate."

However, Volker Kauder, CDU (conservatives) party leader, replied in an interview with BILD: "The Brandenburger Gate is not a place for speeches by foreign election candidates."

Now Obama himself is trying to calm the debate. A spokesperson said that he is looking for alternative places for his speech in Berlin.

[MBS]

5. oped in July 17 NYT

by novelist Christoph Peters, translated from German for the Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/opinion/17peters.html

Interesting take on this. Some excerpts. .

. . .Chancellor Merkel’s reaction seems quite odd when you consider that in 2003 she herself, as the new and internationally all-but-unknown leader of the German opposition, sought to take her place on the world stage — and scored a public relations coup — by writing an article for The Washington Post in which she assured George W. Bush of her support for the Iraq war.

As a result of that article, she was sharply criticized in Germany, where she was seen to have violated political etiquette. We can only speculate about her reasoning, both in 2003 and now. However, her current position can have nothing to do with a desire to remain neutral in the American presidential campaign. Quite the contrary: Apart from the fact that conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have closer ties with one another than with the liberal forces in their respective countries, the chancellor seems to feel an instinctive sympathy, perhaps rooted in her having grown up in East Germany, for such staunchly right-wing and rather gruff figures of American politics as George W. Bush and John McCain. . .Many politicians in former Eastern bloc countries share this sympathy. . .


Everyone I know hopes that Barack Obama will win the presidential election. However, when talk turns to his possible appearance at the Brandenburg Gate, most people raise ironic eyebrows, because they find such symbolic and emotionally charged events generally disconcerting.

People of my generation who grew up in West Germany are quick to see demagoguery in grand political gestures attended by mass euphoria; anthem-singing and flag-waving put us in mind of Nazi rallies or Communist Party congresses. . . .But anyone who wants to produce an effect in a mass democracy needs media-ready images more urgently than good arguments. . . so, among my friends, the ironic eyebrows are usually followed by resigned shrugs: “Well, if speaking there can help him, let him do it!”

George W. Bush’s contempt for the rules and institutions of international politics, his revival of preventive war, with all its unforeseeable consequences, his abrogation of the rule of law in his own country, and his ignorance of every issue related to environmental conservation have become, for me and for the vast majority of Germans, synonymous with a high-handed, ugly America. This state of affairs has provoked not only rage and horror, but also great sadness, for the United States has always been the symbol of freedom, democracy and law.

Although Barack Obama’s style, when viewed from the comparatively disillusioned perspective of “old Europe,” may sometimes look troublingly messianic, most people of this country nevertheless hope that he’ll be able to bridge the gaps his predecessor will leave behind . .

[whometense]

6. I heard something yesterday -

I think it was on NPR (maybe the Diane Rehm Week in the News podcast? http://wamu.org/programs/dr/) that this story was mainly an internal political story - conservative German vs. liberal German, and really had very little to do with Obama himself.

Though if Bush has inserted himself into the equation, it would not be a great surprise.