DISGRACEFUL, EMBARRASSING - AT 7:22 P.M. ET:  We noted that President Obama didn't see fit to attend yesterday's ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  He did send a tape, apparently, unlike the DVDs he gave British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, playable in European machines.  They played it.

What was shocking though, was the absence of any reference to President Reagan.  And..there were no references to John Paul II or Margaret Thatcher, who were instrumental in bringing freedom to Eastern Europe.  From what I see on the internet, there was only a brief mention of President Kennedy, who made defense of Berlin a hallmark of American policy.  And there was no mention of Harry Truman, who ordered the Berlin Airlift, which kept West Berlin free in 1948. 

Who got the highest honors yesterday?

Incredibly, it was Mikhail Gorbachev. 

It was the finale to a day of memorial services, speeches and events that attracted leaders from around the world, including former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Merkel and 78-year-old Gorbachev stood shoulder to shoulder as they crossed a former fortified border crossing point between East and West Berlin to cheers of "Gorby! Gorby!"

In the twisted logic of Europe, he was responsible for the wall coming down because he didn't order his forces to resist.  Gee, what a concept.  I guess the Japanese were responsible for ending World War II because they didn't shoot at MacArthur when his four-engine transport landed on their soil.

It was up to the United States Government to be sure that three former presidents, instrumental in saving Berlin, were properly honored.  The job wasn't done.

Scott Johnson, at Power Line, comments:

Both Secretary Clinton and President Obama emphasized Obama's world-historic story. Clinton likens Obama's election to the fall of the Wall. Obama draws the moral of the story. "Few would have foreseen ... that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it."

Obama's brief remarks are an exercise in bowdlerization, circumlocution, evasion. Omitted from the remarks, among other things, is any mention of the Soviet Union or Communism, Harry Truman or Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher or Pope John Paul. Obama neither decries the villains nor salutes the heroes of the story. Rather, Obama celebrates himself. He is an agent of destiny. He is the fulfillment of history.

COMMENT:  Class shows, as does the lack of it.

November 10, 2009