Maybe his priority was strong-arming a Democrat-controlled Congress to pass health care legislation on a Saturday night, or maybe it was dealing with the latest appointee to leave his administration. It could even be that the destination wasn’t a suitable date night or shopping venue for Michelle. Whatever the reason, Barack Obama skipped the trip to the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Instead, Obama sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — only to upstage her by appearing at the scene via video.
In his three-minute address, Obama noted, “Few would have foreseen on that day [when the Wall came down] 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 it’s not about him, is it?
Also, while Obama mentioned President John F. Kennedy’s remarks in his video he failed to note President Ronald Reagan, the leader who called on Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” and lived to see it happen. We think that Obama stayed home because the comparison to President Reagan would have made him look small, shallow and ridiculous.
