Europe News
Obama meets Merkel ahead of key foreign policy speech
Jul 24, 2008, 12:06 GMT
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and designated presidential contender of the US democrats Barack Obama (L) wave on the balcony of German Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, 24 July 2008. In the evening Obama will give a speech on his ideas of the future transatlantic cooperation in front of the victory column in Berlin. EPA/JENS WOLF
Berlin - Presidential hopeful Barack Obama met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday for talks on key international issues.
German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm described the talks as 'very open and in depth,' adding they were held in a good atmosphere.
The German leader and Obama posed for photographers at the start of their meeting, which lasted about an hour and focused on Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as the Middle East peace process, Wilhelm said.
The Illinois Senator is visiting the German capital to make the key speech of an overseas tour aimed at enhancing his foreign policy credentials for the US electorate.
A small crowd of onlookers gathered outside the chancellor's office in central Berlin where Obama and Merkel held their talks and the luxury hotel where he is staying during his day-long visit.
However, shortly after his arrival at the Adlon Hotel, which is close to both the US Embassy and Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, a suspicious package triggered a security scare at the hotel.
The hotel's lobby was cleared briefly before the package was examined by explosives experts and declared that it did not represent any threat.
The US senator was scheduled to hold talks with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier early in the afternoon.
Obama is to make a 45-minute address on transatlantic relations at an open air venue in the heart of Berlin, speaking under the city's Victory Column to an expected crowd of tens of thousands in the early evening.
However, preparations for Obama's speech were marred after a 40- year man driving a car breached the cordoned off zone where the US presidential candidate is to speak and sprayed red paint around the area.
The man from the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is now in police custody, pending an investigation.
While Berlin was in Obama fever ahead of the visit, political commentators stressed that the main aim of the visit was to boost the senator's fortunes in the US presidential race.
In his speech, Obama was expected to seek to revive transatlantic relations that suffered considerable damage under President George W Bush.
Commentators were watching closely to discern calls for greater European contributions in Afghanistan and to hear the senator's views on pressing Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment programme.
Obama is overwhelmingly more popular in Europe than his Republican adversary, John McCain. A recent poll put his German support at 76 per cent.
Following his round of engagements in Berlin, Obama is to visit Friday the US Ramstein Air Force base and the US military hospital in Landstuhl, which are both in the western part of Germany.
The US Democrat presidential candidate will then travel on to France.
Before arriving in Germany, Obama visited Israel, the Palestinian territories, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
So, Obama wants to fight the bad guys where ever they are (kill people without knowing them). He can rub elbows with world leaders (have his staff buy a plane ticket and hotel reservation to visit a person).
But, does he have any higher level functioning:
(a) Can he really balance a check book? (really understand the 10 trillion dollar deficit and how to not add to the problem).
(b) Does he really understand Camelot and everything it invokes? (what justice really means).
Even those two functions are very primitive and remedial. The bar is so low for these presidential candidates that one has to dig a hole in order to measure the height of the bar.
The electorate's view of these people have been reduced to Brittany Spears level: Photo ops with the chance of catching something perverse for their own basal satisfaction.
And finally: If Obama cared about any type of energy crisis and the heating bills of poor people in the U.S. he could have simply held a video conference via the Internet to address any of the issues. But instead he decided to waste gas and money on a vacation trip to Europe. Shame on him, he sets a bad example as do all greedy politicians.
page: 1
patriotJul 24th, 2008 - 12:24:25
Barack Obama's 300 Spartans (Advisors)?
It seems that you claim to be truthful and advocate CHANGE, and yet you enlist 300 soldiers, (advisors) to give advice on 'as the world turns', is quite alarming. If you sir, need 300 paid advisors to help you make a decision then you have not done your homework. You have managed to create your own independent congress of people that are burning thru your $5.00 internet donations like sand thru an hour glass. It alarms me that if THEY decide to place you in that office, your staff would double?
If your 300 were like the Spartans and lead by a leader like King Leonidas , of which you are not, then your 300 advisors are justified.
But in this case they are not.
You wish to be the President of the United States of America, and yet you still lie, you hire an outrageous staff of succubus's that have their own interests, you do not attend to the poor, you are too concerned with keywords and false policy that fool those that really want CHANGE, you cannot stroll thru an American neighborhood unless you have your SS officers with you, not allowing Americans to protect you, you are so concerned that you will say the wrong thing, because you are not allowed to speak your own words, you have taken from the American people their hard earned $5.00 and given them nothing in return, you have no idea how big and deep the rabbit hole is that you have started to go down. The 300 Spartans defended their freedom and their Homeland, and you sir, are defending those that wish to rape the land and enslave Americans like Xeres attempted to do.
You are making policy on the run, without regard to the outcome, and we Americans will suffer for your mistakes and blunders.
These next four years will be yours, but the next four years after that will be for the American People.
CHANGE FOR AMERICA FOR AMERICANS!
The American Republic
A Sovereign Republic
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