This morning Marc Ambinder reported that Barack Obama is already making plans for his presidential transition team, and this afternoon McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said that Obama’s speech was a “premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin”. Perhaps the “Victory Column” in Berlin was a particularly ominous venue choice for Obama. In 1999 Tiergarten’s mayor told Wired magazine how the fourth ring of the Victory Column was dedicated to a victory that never was:
“Hitler and Speer made plans for a German capital that should be three times greater than the capital in Washington. For that, they needed space, so they moved the Victory tower to this place where it is now. It had three rings, one for victory in 1864, the second for victory in war in 1866, and the third for victory in war against the French in 1871. They added a fourth part for the victory in the Second World War. That victory didn’t happen, but they were convinced they would win. So after all this, it’s a real Nazi part to have this monument there.”
