Anne Applebaum: Obama and Europe – Missed signals, renewed commitments
U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker walk off Air Force One at an Air National Guard Base in Pennsylvania on April 16, 2014.
Even now, gazing back through the jaundiced lens of subsequent experience, Barack Obama's 2008 campaign speech in Berlin still seems an extraordinary occasion. Tens of thousands of mostly young Germans gathered in the center of the city to listen to the American presidential candidate, in an atmosphere The Guardian described as "a pop festival, a summer gathering of peace, love - and loathing of George Bush." Streets were closed for the occasion. Bands played to warm up the crowd.
