Obama in Berlin

Thoughts from Paris

Barack Obama spoke in Berlin last night, and is this afternoon in Paris - as I blog - meeting with the French President several blocks away.  The French news talked repeatedly yesterday of Obama's public address in Berlin last night, saying that they expected a crowd of 10,000.  Turns out to have been much more like 200,000.  Here's the speech (and comments on Youtube.com)

Obviously I'm a fan and supporter.  Everywhere that we've been in France these past weeks, Obama always comes up in the conversation.  His book is a big seller here. Many are those that ask us if we think Obama can win.  Nearly all of them express a hope that he will - not just for the USA - but for all the world.  Something about him, his presence, his speaking prowress and what he represents offers HOPE not just to Americans but to most Europeans who are tired of a political system that seems stuck, mired in an impasse of political position taking, opposition stalling, and racial profiling.

Of course this whole European tour is planned, a smart marketing tool, in a way propaganda.  Yet it's striking that everywhere we travel in Paris we seem Obama...all across the shelves of newstands, in bookstores, in the paper, in conversations over dinner.  Even when we spent the day at the Eiffel Tower we couldn't escape it.  A German couple who waited in line with us for over an hour were reading a copy of Obama's book in French and passionately discussing it.   What does that mean?  for America?  For the West?  For our world that seems increasingly mired in passivity in the face of raising food prices, reduced purchasing power, exploding petrol prices and growing complacency in terms of daily life and the need for change and the seemingly impossibility of true transformation.  We are intertwined not just by the multinational corporations like Coca-Cola that control and shape our socio-economic lives but also in our intellectual-spiritual-communal hopes, dreams and desires.

Interesting Online Reads

France for Obama (French Blog)

Raising $$$ for Obama abroad in France (All the News that's Fit Blog)

Elections USA 2008 [blog] interesting video clips and photos from Berlin