Kurt Beck, SPD party chair, endorses Obama

[lebkuchen]

SPD chairman Kurt Beck said the whole world would be better off with a President Obama instead of another Republican administration.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL0773282520080607?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews

As this article says, it's rare that a German politician will endorse another country's candidate. But Europeans aren't just "tired" of Bush; they loathe him and have for a long time. The word "Bush" is often overheard discussed at nearby restaurant tables, and not in a complimentary way. Germans are very hopeful that someone other than another Bush-type becomes president.

Another VIP has also endorsed Obama: Eva Schloss, the posthumous step-sister of Anne Frank. Schloss and her mother survived Birkenau; her father and brother didn't. Schloss's mother eventually married Otto Frank.

Here's her Obama endorsement:

http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKQc_THbLAYE

Bush's May comment at the Knesset, implying that Obama (or anyone who doesn't agree with Bush's war policies) is appeasing people akin to the Nazis, most probably did not impress Frau Schloss, except for the magnitude of its hyperbole and stupidity.

[Hope And Change]

1. K & R!

Go Europe!

[Cha]

2. Obama for the world..thank you,

lebkuchen!

[MiniMe]

5. Better yet, the world for Obama

Gobama

[Cha]

6. It's

Reciprecal.

[lebkuchen]

7. You're welcome!

Obama's bid HAS stirred the pot of racial/national divide here in Germany, particularly in the small villages. When drinking at fests with Germans sharing a table with me, they will work their way around to politics, and whether Hillary or Obama will win the nomination. I have said each time that Obama will win the nomination AND the presidency. I usually get a concerned look of response from small-village Germans, who, although can't stand Bush, prefer a white woman to a black man. In their own situation, they don't want any "auslanders," or immigrants, living in their villages, to include black people, and so they prefer not to see what they consider an "auslander" in the WH, maybe out of fear that it will further open the "flood-gates" of acceptance of open-borders. (Turkey is a candidate for EU membership.)

A German hauptschule student told me he's heard several German friends say they "aren't ready" for a black man as president, a comment that doesn't speak highly of the mentality of the people making it. When will they be "ready?" When they let go of their prejudices of people who don't look like themselves or share the same (usually religious) views? Why should the rest of the world's tolerance, open-mindedness and spirit of democracy be held back by a handful of people still maintaining a white-knuckled grip on anachronistic post-WWII bigoted attitudes?

I don't get into this type of conversation with Germans because usually a spouse will correct the comment out of embarrassment, saying it's not "auslanders" who are the cause of problems in Germany; the government creates these problems as well as the people who elect its officials into office. To me, that shows there's progress being made in small German villages. Hopefully, this "attitude adjustment" will be imported across the pond to small-town America.

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. another k&r.......nt

[Aloha Spirit]

4. Bush has become a four letter word, lol.

[slinkerwink]

8. Obama for the world, and the world for Obama!

[FrenchieCat]

9. just waiting for Obama's trip to Europe and elsewhere in the world

shortly.......just like I talked about in this here thread of mine! http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6214741

[lebkuchen]

10. Europeans are tired of protesting Bush and his policies

It's time to celebrate. I suggest Obama start his trek to the country that wins the European Cup, which is taking place now. Germany plays Poland today, and there are German flags everywhere, not to mention, Turkish and Italian flags, representing the international crowd living in Germany. Soccer, or fussball, is a big deal in much of the world, and Obama would win big "points" for the U.S. in acknowledging a sport popular across continental divides. Obama played soccer as a child, so it would be an important first to have a U.S. candidate/president on the field with his "team" of supporters mending international goal posts. Obama would not only be promoting soccer in the U.S., he would be using the sport as a metaphor, that the U.S. is finally ready to work with our closest allies as a team player rather than as a loud-mouthed bullying adversary.

And, I wish it were the World Cup this year, so I could fly my own flag!

[FrenchieCat]

11. I have heard mentions that he was going overseas soon......

like a couple of weeks or so in an AP story.

Obama Camp: Trip Overseas Is 'Under Consideration'
May 28, 2008 10:42 PM
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/obama-camp-trip.html

[lebkuchen]

16. McCain saw less of Iraq than the typical US tourist seeing Berlin in two days.

less because McCain was even more isolated from the culture and realities of Iraq than your standard "Tuesday/Belgium" tourist, when considering McCain's layers of bodily and military hardware protection.

I don't think Obama should go to Iraq until he's in the WH, if then. Instead, Obama should go to Europe, as Bush is about to do (why the Chimp is coming is anyone's guess--he's despised here). Bush will make the usual ass of himself, and then Obama can visit afterward and show how comfortable he is traveling internationally--he lived much of his childhood overseas. He can play soccer with members of a local sports club, perhaps of the country that wins the European Cup, as a symbol of partnership, sportsmanship, youth fitness, and a means of making contact with the masses--as opposed to Bush's golf game, a sport most people in the world can't afford and can't relate to.

We need to get the U.S. back on the international map, and a fussball field would be the perfect venue.

[JVS]

12. What does the PDS say?

[lebkuchen]

21. nothing yet, that I know of

Again, it's unusual for a German party to get involved in another country's politics and make endorsements.

[Eurobabe]

13. People in Deutschland ask me for Obama stickers, routinely

when they see my car or my t-shirts, buttons. Where can I get one they ask? :D

[lebkuchen]

14. That's saying a lot

since Germans don't make a habit of putting bumper stickers on their cars or wearing their politics on their sleeve. They must feel comfortable promoting Obama to the rest of the country because the vast majority of Germans feel the same way.

[NotThisTime]

15. Too bad we can't bring Eva over to help campaign! Great endorsements!

[lebkuchen]

18. Frau Schloss is 79 years old, and seems very spry and energetic

not to mention very bright. Her brother Heinz died in the labor camps. He was a gifted artist and musician. Eva wrote a book, The Promise, commemorating his poetry and paintings, which were buried before the family was sent to Auschwitz. Eva and her mother dug them up after the war for publication and exhibition.

http://www.freewebs.com/evaschloss/evasbrotherheinz.htm

Miep Gies, one of four people to help the Frank family while they were in hiding, is still alive and will turn 100 in February. She traveled to California when she was 87 years old to talk to the students of Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach about the Holocaust. Her visit was depicted in the movie "Freedom Writers."

If Frau Schloss were asked to visit the U.S. to stump for Obama, she would probably welcome the opportunity. She lives in London with her husband. Perhaps Obama should visit her in London as well.

[MH1]

17. Great, but the whole world wanted Kerry in 04, too

It didn't help. If anything it motivated nationalistic feeling here against Kerry.

I'm just saying this might not be something to tout when talking to certain people.

[lebkuchen]

19. SPD sees it differently

No member of the Social Democratic Party spoke up during the Kerry or Gore campaign, and Germany has had to suffer eight years of Bush.

Benzin is now the equivalent of $9.20 per gallon, and Bush has been shutting down US bases in Germany with abandon. Rapid changes like that tend to affect one's economy in a relatively small country like Germany.

Germany doesn't control the conservative U.S. Supreme Court, nor could it have controlled Ohio's conservative Sec. of State Blackwell and his tossing out 350,000 ballots. Ohio's voters took care of Blackwell by sending him packing in 2006. SPD hopes it can affect the attitudes of its American relatives from across the pond because U.S. policies are hurting Europe so much.

There are too many ballots to invalidate in too many states to allow the next election to be tampered with, imo. Bush would have to initiate martial law to keep power for the GOP, but since most of the military think the Chimp is nuts, he doesn't even have that card to play anymore.

The GOP has done itself in.

[panAmerican]

20. I didn't know Eva Schloss had endorsed Obama! This is very impressive.