July 25, 2008

Hotline After Dark -- Location, Location, Location

NBC's Williams spoke with Barack Obama before and after his speech in Berlin.

Obama, on the view from the stage: "It was a nice view."

Williams: "When an American politician comes to Berlin, we've had some iconic utterances in the past. We've had 'Ich bin ein,' we had, 'Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall.'"

Obama: "I don't rate that high."

Williams: "Is the phraseology that you would like remembered is 'People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment, this is our time'?"

Obama: "You know, I think if that captures what I was trying to communicate, which is that here in Berlin where, essentially, the west was forged out of World War II, we have now the opportunity to join not only with Germany but with all of Europe and countries of good will to try to reach out and do for the world what we did for Berlin."

After the jump, reax to Obama's speech and McCain also speaks to NBC.

(KATHERINE LEHR)

Obama, on the John McCain camp calling him a "craven and naive traveler to the Middle East", who "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign": "I was disappointed by that language. You know, John McCain and I disagree on policy. You know, we disagreed on going into the war in Iraq. We disagreed, until recently, about the need to get more troops into Afghanistan. But I've never questioned that he wants to make America safer. And for him to suggest that I don't, for him to suggest that somehow I'm less concerned about the safety of my wife and daughter than he is I think was unfortunate."

Williams: "Forty-five minutes in Ramallah. No electoral votes in Berlin. Is the trip worth it?"

Obama: "It is because I have firmly believed since the beginning of this campaign and for the last several years that we can't solve the problems we face in the United States alone. We can't solve the problems of terrorism without support from the international community. We can go after al-Qaeda as we have and we must."

Williams: "Is it not time to say that the surge you opposed has worked?"

Obama: "You know, Brian, it's interesting how many permutations various reporters have gone through on this. I have consistently said that as a consequence of us putting more troops in and the awakening in the Anbar province where Sunnis turned against al Qaeda and the Shia militia standing down, that violence is significantly down and that there is significant improvement in Iraq. But what I have also consistently said is that not only was us going into Iraq in the first place a mistake, but that for us moving forward, what we have to focus on is the need for political reconciliation -- that that's going to make the ultimate difference. That does not detract, in any way, from the great work our troops did" ("Nightly News," 7/24).

GOOD (BUT NOT GREAT) MOMENTS IN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SPEECHES

Obama's Berlin speech was the talk of the tube last night. Some of the reax:

Guardian's Freedland: "I think Barack Obama intuitively and calculatedly touched that shopping list of issues that Europeans want action on in his speech today. Tacitly, he said over and over again how he would not be like George W. Bush" ("NewsHour," PBS, 7/24).

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer: "There was a problem of scale in this speech. After all, the disparity between the grandness of the venue, the vastness of the crowd, and the smallness of this speech was quite striking. ... It was all wind. It was enough to power the T. Boone Pickens turbine for a year. ... I think it was quite useless, and I think the audience was mildly disappointed" ("Special Report," FNC, 7/24).

CNN's Amanpour, on the crowd's reaction: "I don't think they were disappointed, and I'm not sure that they were thoroughly satisfied. ... I was surprised that there wasn't this sort of euphoria afterwards, given how many people had come to listen and how much it had been anticipated. To be sure, there were spikes during the speech which drew large cheers and applause, at least from the crowds immediately around him" ("Situation Room," 7/24).

New Yorker's Lizza: "Let's be honest, they don't know a lot about Barack Obama. He could have been speaking Portuguese and they would have been cheering and waving flags. I don't think it was one of his greatest speeches. I don't think there was a single line we'll remember from this speech in years to come. There was no, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. There was no ich bin ein Berliner. ... What was great about the speech was not any single in what he said. It was that 200,000 Germans came with American flags and cheered this guy" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 7/24).

THE AGE-OLD QUESTION

And NBC's K. O'Donnell sat down with McCain in Columbus, OH, 7/24.

McCain, asked if it was appropriate for Obama to "hold a political rally of that scale in a foreign country": "I would rather speak at a rally or a gathering any place outside the United States after I'm president of the United States. But that's a judgment that Senator Obama and the American people will make."

McCain, asked if he believes Obama really would be willing to lose the war in Iraq: "I don't think he understands the serious consequences of failure in Iraq. So, therefore, he treats it as just another political issue."

K. O'Donnell: "Rather than a timetable for withdrawal, McCain says more American soldiers will leave Iraq based on improved conditions."

McCain: "I'm sure that by the end of my first term as president, we will be largely out of there."

K. O'Donnell, on a VP selection: "In your own mind, do you know where you want to go, even though you're not ready yet to share it with us?"

McCain: "Sure, sure."

K. O'Donnell: "Does that mean you've made a decision?"

McCain: "No"

McCain, on critics saying his gaffes are made because of his age: "I guess my response very seriously is these are tough times in America and the world. The economy is in worst shape than it's been in for a long time. They need a steady hand at the tiller. That's what I'm going to try to convince them of, and I think I can do it" ("Nightly News," 7/24).

Posted at 09:15 AM

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