Berlin

So Gallup is showing that Obama may be getting something of a bounce after Thurday's speech. He's now up six points compared to two points yesterday. Since the poll represents a three day average he probably was up even more on Thursday night.

Even allowing for the uncritical media treatment, shouldn't it bother us that four percent of the electorate changed their minds on the basis of nothing more than an empty cliche-ridden speech to a large crowd of Germans? Four percent isn't much but it could have swung the last two elections in the Democrat's favor. 

According to Gallup, Obama gained two points worth of undecided voters out of 12%. That means that at least 17% of undecideds decided they will back him because of his speech alone.

These are the people who get to decide our elections. Scary, isn't it?

If this bounce is either large or long, then the election is over. If people have bought into Obama because of his wall metaphors then they will certainly buy into whatever crap he will try to sell on the last week of the election. Just imagine: it's November and the polls are tied but on November 3 Obama delivers an "eloquent" speech in front of a huge crowd about the housing crisis where he talks about how the American dream is being stolen by Bush and McCain and he'll restore it. At this point he can just make up the facts. He gets a four point bounce and the next day he's in....

...Or maybe I'm just over-reacting.

Now Barack Obama wants to look like a serious statesman just like JFK and Ronald Reagan, so he goes to Berlin to make a "big speech"

Based on the lack of "bounce" out there http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/24/fox-news-poll-no-bounce-for-obama-from-overseas-trip/ this may prove to be yet another photo op that backfires

This is pretty extraordinary. A candidate for the American Presidency is using flyers printed in German to turn people out for his campaign rally in Berlin on Thursday. This flyer can be found on a bilingual page on BarackObama.com advertising the event:

The German flyers bear Obama's campaign logo and say "Paid for by Obama for America."

I'm surprised at this lapse in judgment in an otherwise well-oiled and professional Obama campaign. The last time they printed up campaign paraphenalia in a foreign language, it didn't work out so hot for them.

So, this isn't just some sober, high-minded foreign policy speech, part of a foreign trip occurring under the auspices of his official Senate office. It is a campaign rally occuring on foreign soil. They are using the same tactics to turn out Germans to an event as they would to any rally right here in America. This after Obama's campaign said this:

“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser.

The sea of Germans drummed up by the Obama campaign will be used as props to tell us Americans how to vote, and the campaign isn't trying to pretend otherwise. That's breathtakingly arrogant, and par for the course for Barack Obama.