That Was a Mistake

I’m talking to you, Obama…

a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

In addition to being meaningless — the world is not a polity, so citizenship in it is impossible — this is exactly the sort of redundantly empty rhetoric that does nothing to energize his base, nothing to allay the concerns of Middle America about his meta-attitude, and supplies the frantic and the furious on the right with a fresh tranch of attacks. Why did he do it? Bad advice? His own advice? Why couldn’t he just say “a big fan of the world,” or “a product of the world,” something that at least had the merit of being accurate? Anyone?

UPDATE: That said…Peter Lawler gets it, as he often does, exactly right. My great scorn for Obama’s remark — even if it was lifted from Kennedy, or if it’s supposed to apply to all of us, the content of my objection stands — should not be confused with scorn for his appearance in Berlin or even his speech. It is undeniable that Obama is an incredible asset to what is often discussed as ‘America’s image abroad’, and should really just be described as America. In several important ways, Obama is full of crap, but it is our crap that he is full of, and people all over the planet still love it.