No, Barack Obama couldn't!

Sorry, but this was kind of weak. This was a political speech, but not a historic one.

Okay, Obama presented some nice rhetoric, he got his applause, he made his compliments, he has his visions, but you could hear with every word that he tried to avoid every possible political mine, here in Germany and Europe, at home in the US, and elsewhere in the world.

In some phrases, his writers could construct his vision, but the visionary force he develops in domestic speeches was not in his eyes. He spoke out of calculation, not so much out of deep conviction. His personal story that works domestically does not really work on the international scene. This makes his message much weaker here than it is in the USA.

And he did not address some very concrete and important issues: No word about Guantanamo, no word about a wrong war in Irak, no real promise that an America under his leadership would join binding global agreements e.g. to tackle global climate and energy problems. And while he talked about a world without nuclear weapons, no word about global superpowers like the US also abandoning these disgusting weapons.

So, Obama got his European backdrop, he had his audience, and now let's see what he can make out of it.