Did Barack Obama forget that people in Germany can’t vote for him? Bloggers are convinced that his speech in Berlin tonight is just a campaign event and that the candidate has his priorities all wrong. First, bloggers are posting the event flier (at right, and English translation from Political Punch) as evidence. The Next Right’s Patrick Ruffini concludes that “this isn’t just some sober, high-minded foreign policy speech, part of a foreign trip occurring under the auspices of his official Senate office. It is a campaign rally occuring on foreign soil. They are using the same tactics to turn out Germans to an event as they would to any rally right here in America.” And Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey adds, “The Obama campaign wants to hold a political rally in Berlin, apparently to impress upon American voters how popular Obama is among Europeans.” At Contentions, Jennifer Rubin is skeptical that this rally will help Obama win voters: “I find it hard to figure out which voters are going to be moved by a massive show of affection by Germans for Obama. Voters who think he’s ‘not one of us’ are going to be irked and the folks who are genuinely concerned about foreign policy smarts and credentials aren’t necessarily going to be wowed by a mass rally.” Not to mention, it appears that he is ignoring the Americans who are there. In another Hot Air post, Morrissey notes that Obama cancelled visits to U.S. military bases in Rammstein and Landstuhl. The American Spectator‘s Philip Klein says that “he’s more concerned with playing rock star for German citizens than he is with visiting our troops. It’s the type of thing that just makes your blood boil.” At Ace of Spades, Gabriel Malor simply concludes, “The whole campaign thinks that they’ve already won.”
