This is what a President should look like

Because, while there's never a bad time for Ronald Reagan, some times are better than others, here's his speech at the Brandenburg Gate.



The compare and contrast exercise with the current incumbent is stark and sobering...

Other reactions to Obama's public self-love video

Allahpundit:

Even here, history is a handmaiden to The One’s grandeur.

Scott Johnson:

Obama's brief remarks are an exercise in bowdlerization, circumlocution, evasion. Omitted from the remarks, among other things, is any mention of the Soviet Union or Communism, Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Pope John Paul. Obama neither decries the villains nor salutes the heroes of the story. Rather, Obama celebrates himself. He is an agent of destiny. He is the fulfillment of history.

Mark Steyn:

Tear Down This Wall

. . . so they can get a better look at ME!!!

...the now familiar mush of evasive generalities...

Kathryn Jean Lopez:

I boycotted the Obama Berlin Wall video until just now. I thought the concept was crass. But so was the content. Ronald Reagan deserved mention. He owed history a mention of that remarkable partnership with Margaret Thatcher, the deep bond with John Paul II.

But there was only time to talk about himself.

President Me-Me-Me-Me-Me speaks again

The President of the United States has taken a little bit of heat over the past couple of weeks for his decision not to appear at the ceremonies celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a late surprise event, he adressed the crowd via video.

He'd have been better off staying away completely.

It would be overpraising the remarks to say that they were vapid, hackneyed, cliched, weak and watery and utterly unsuited to the occasion. The people invested in the myth of the magnificent oratory won't notice, of course, but this was embarrassing. Seriously. Neither the Dixie Chicks nor anyone else were ever more embarrassed by George W. Bush than I am by this President.

He spoke for 3:04, and in that time was not able to get in a single word from the following list:

Soviet Union
Communism
Pope John Paul II
Margaret Thatcher
Ronald Reagan

He was, however, able to get in his standard "hope and change" cliches, and praise himself for his office and his skin color.

Even in the face of tyranny, people insisted that the world could change.

...

In a Berlin under siege, President Kennedy said that "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free." Few would have foreseen on that day 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 human destiny is what human beings make of it.

I cannot think of anything more narcissistic or out of place than that comment about "America...[being]...led by a man of African descent." It's a political obscenity.

It boggles my mind that some people can still listen to this guy and hear a great speaker, or a natural leader, or a strong personality, or anything like that. He's an embarrassment.

Here's the video. I recommend - strongly recommend - avoiding it. I watched so you don't have to.

Has a Democratic Speaker of the House ever been right? About anything?

Being a liberal politician means being wrong about everything, and receiving the loving praise of the mainstream press in return. Being a liberal politician means never having to say, "I'm sorry."

[Jim] Wright’s face hardened. Reagan’s declaration had destroyed any chance of the wall coming down, since Gorbachev could not appear to bow to him. Wright fumed, “It just makes me have utter contempt for Reagan. He spoiled the chance for a dramatic breakthrough in relations between our two countries It bespeaks his pettiness and self-centeredness. He just couldn’t bear Gorbachev doing it of his own volition.”