Berliners: Barack Obama is No Ronald Reagan or JFK

It may end up being the worst decision in a series of bad decisions of the Barack Obama Presidency - his decision not to go to Berlin today for the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin.

Heads of State from Great Britain, France and Germany were at the wall today and spoke - but no Obama. Instead, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was at today's ceremony and introduced a videotaped message from the President - but it was too little, too late.

Telegraph Toby Hardnen wondered in today's Daily Telegraph if the event today wasn't enough about Obama for Obama's liking.

The White House has cited a packed schedule, though looking at it he had nothing much on yesterday (brief chat to reporters about healthcare – by far his biggest priority) and just blah briefings and a bill signing today until a meeting this evening with Benjamin Netanyahu. This time, Der Spiegel has reported it as “Barack Too Busy”.

Barack Obama wasn't too busy last year in heading for Berlin during his election campaign, when he was cheered by a crowd of 200,000 adoring Germans. President Obama was able to squeeze in a trip to Copenhagen last month to lobby, unsuccessfully, for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. He plans to travel to Oslo next month to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that even Obama has said he does not deserve. And this coming week, he sets out on a weeklong tour of Asia.

Past President's have made iconic speeches at the wall. John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech and Ronald Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech are two for the ages.

Why on earth would a President who revels in big speeches pass up this opportunity? He was quick to apologize for America on a visit to Europe earlier this year. Maybe he didn't want to come off like a hypocrite in remembering the great gift Ronald Reagan gave Europe in winning the Cold War.

Nile Gardiner, again in the London Telegraph, wrote the following

It is shameful when the US president can’t even be bothered to show up at a ceremony marking one of the most momentous events of modern times. As Rich Lowry wrote in his column for National Review, “Obama’s failure to go to Berlin is the most telling nonevent of his presidency.” Newt Gingrich put it well when he described Obama’s foolhardy decision as “a tragedy”.

The Gardiner piece is a good one. He speculates that Obama is both uncomfortable with America's greatness and wants to appease Russia. But Gardiner argues that this is a time when the world needs a strong America - and more importantly - a strong American leader.

The striking absence of the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the earth from ceremonies marking the fall of the Berlin Wall is yet another damning indictment of Barack Obama’s world leadership, or lack of it. The United States is currently faced with an array of challenges as great as those confronted by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, from the war in Afghanistan and the global fight against Islamist terrorism, to the rise of a nuclear-armed Iran.

America today badly needs Reagan’s vision of forceful US leadership if it is to remain as the world’s dominant power. Instead its position is being rapidly undermined by a foreign policy of weakness and indecision, one that will only strengthen the hand of its enemies.

This seems like an obvious segue to Sarah Palin's post on Facebook today entitled
"Commemorating a Victory for Freedom"

Twenty years ago, the ultimate symbol of the division between freedom and tyranny was torn down. The Berlin Wall was constructed for one purpose: to prevent the escape of East Germans to the freedom of the West. The Wall’s cold, gray façade was a stark reminder of the economic and political way of life across the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

Ronald Reagan never stopped regarding the Berlin Wall as an affront to human freedom. When so many other American leaders and opinion makers had come to accept its presence as inevitable and permanent, Reagan still hammered away at the Wall’s very premise in human tyranny, until finally the Wall itself was hammered down. Its downfall wasn’t the work of Reagan alone. Our president’s actions were joined with the brave acts of many individuals who stood firm and united in facing the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall came down because millions of people behind the Iron Curtain refused to accept the fate of enslavement and their supporters in the West refused to accept that the “captive nations” would remain captive forever.

Though that long, tragic episode in human history had come to a close finally with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it wasn’t the “end of history” or the end of conflict as some had hoped. New conflicts confront us today throughout the world which call for courage and resolve and dedication to freedom. The new democracies and market economies that have emerged in Central and Eastern Europe still require our friendship and alliances as they continue to seek security, prosperity, and self-determination. But as we reflect on present and future challenges, let’s take time to celebrate the anniversary of this awesome victory for freedom. The downfall of that cold, gray concrete Wall should be a lesson to us in hope. Nothing is inevitable. Tyranny is no match for the hope and resolve of those who work and fight for freedom.

- Sarah Palin

A now, for those too young to remember how a great leader acts when history calls, here is what Ronald Reagan did in front of the Berlin Wall. He demanded the wall be torn down - and so it was.