I welcome the spirited reaction to my previous post today, in which I make reference to the quotation Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank attributes to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). If the expanded quote several of you provided is, in fact, the most accurate transcription of the senator’s words, I welcome the revision.
Revised or not, however, my underlying analysis remains the same: For Sen. Obama to equate himself to a symbol of change and enthusiasm is still a remarkably jarring comment that is equally disturbing. To suggest that they are cheering America and not him is disingenuous, in my view. The press in France, Britain and Germany hailed Obama, not America. For him to denote himself as a symbol of America that 200,000 Berliners are cheering is equally lacking in its modesty.