Barack Obama may have left Berlin more than a week ago, but the political repercussions of his speech to about 200,000 people there can still be felt. First came John McCain's controversial Barack-Obama-Is-The-Biggest-Celebrity-In-The-World-But-Is-He-Ready-To Lead?
ad. Then the Republican National Committee launched a parody-type campaign spot that mocks, among other things, the Obama supporters in Berlin by comparing their Obamania to the fondness of many Germans for Knight Rider and Baywatch "star" David Hasselhoff during the 1980s. While the RNC ad seemed to gain only little traction in the United States, German media like DER SPIEGEL certainly picked up on it.
Despite the depiction of Obama being treated to the political equivalent of the "Love Parade" during his trip there, many Germans who witnessed his speech weren't exactly starstruck.
My friends at the Berlin-based Internet think tank Atlantic-community.org conducted a number of video interviews with rally attendees who generally provided a much more nuanced assessment of the Democratic presidential candidate than most mainstream media reports would suggest:
Generally favorable towards Obama, many of the attendees we spoke to during the rally indicated they had come to hear the speech out of curiosity and interest in politics, rather than a specific desire to admire the presidential nominee. When asked about what changes in transatlantic relations they would expect under an Obama presidency, most people surveyed for our video gave a rather pragmatic assessment, suggesting a definite improvement in ties, but no radical deviation from the greater continuity of US foreign policy. […]
Obama's popularity in Germany is not based on him being the anti-Bush, but on his ability to reaffirm belief in ideals cheapened through the hypocrisy of the Bush administration. Germans favor Obama, not because he will set American foreign policy on a different course, but because they expect him to return it to its traditional path--a constellation they are comfortable with.
