Thursday, July 24, 2008
Snark Hunt
The right wing is in full exasperation mode, as Obama addresses a crowd in Berlin. Kathryn Jean Lopez has a typical reaction:
He's too used to American young people who don't know their history. He's explaining German history to Germans ... among Westerners, the German people might be among those most acutely aware of their history.
What she misses, of course, is that the speech is really intended for American ears. Obama's outline of the last 60 years of German-American relations is perfectly appropriate in this context. And the pictures from Berlin -- with tens of thousands of cheering Germans waving American flags -- will be heartening to many Americans who still remember when our country was admired and respected around the world.
But it's an image that has to be galling for the National Review crowd, who prefer to see Americans despised abroad and terrified at home.
