Mr. Obama, Go To That Wall!

In my previous commentary for American Radio Journal, I commended the
profound historical event that was fall of the Berlin Wall, the 20th
anniversary of which took place on November 9. The fall of the wall is a
vivid triumph for human freedom. It symbolized the end of the Cold War,
and liberation of hundreds of millions.

Joining that commemoration were people and leaders from all over the
world, many of which gathered in Berlin, Germany-a post-Cold War,
unified Germany-for a moving celebration on November 9, headed by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and the great leader of the Polish Solidarity
movement, Lech Walesa, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking of Nobel Peace Prize winners, one leader conspicuously absent
from the November 9 festivities in Berlin was the American president,
Barack Obama. Maybe you haven’t heard about that. Obama’s absence was
not widely reported by America’s mainstream media. Outside of FoxNews,
talk-radio, and some conservative websites, Obama’s rejection of
Chancellor Merkel’s invitation got little coverage in the United States.

Of course, it got plenty of coverage in Germany: "Barack Is Too Busy,"
read the headline in a thoroughly annoyed Der Spiegel, one of the top
publications in Germany.

And, indeed, that was the reason for Obama declining the invitation.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained, "Obviously we have a
lot to work on here and we have commitments for an upcoming Asia trip."
Gibbs noted that America would instead send a "very senior delegation"
of U.S. officials.

In essence, what the Obama administration said is that Obama had a
schedule conflict. The president simply did not have time to go to the
Brandenburg Gate.

Let me apologize for being cynical, but I find this explanation hard to
believe.

As anyone with a TV knows, Barack Obama is a force of nature, a man of
incredible energy, constantly flying all over the world for a multitude
of reasons. His face is everywhere. He is not one to avoid attention.
This man found time to write two memoirs about himself even before he
was president.

He is no stranger to Europe. He recently managed to shoot over to
Copenhagen to lobby the Olympic Committee to schedule the 2016 Summer
Olympics in Chicago. And he certainly is not skirting his plans to jet
to Oslo to accept his Nobel Peace Prize.

Yes, this "too busy" argument simply does not seem to fit the Obama
profile.

In short, there’s no good excuse for Obama "snubbing"-that’s word that
Europeans have used-the invitation from Germany, even as Obama’s
disciples in America grasp for one.

Of course, this is what we ought to expect from a president whose mentor
was Frank Marshall Davis and who, in the 1980s, when President Reagan
was seeking to breach the Berlin Wall, was being educated by and chose
to "hang with"-as he put it in his memoirs-"Marxist professors." Obama
was raised, nurtured, and educated by what Whittaker Chambers-and Ronald
Reagan quoting Chambers-dubbed "the wrong side of history." By not going
to Berlin, for whatever reason, Barack Obama chose the wrong side of
history.

For some added insight, I’d like to quote Dinesh D’Souza: "I’m glad
Obama is not going," wrote D’Souza. "Of course it’s a stupid move for
him politically…. If Obama were wily like Bill Clinton, he would go to
the Berlin Wall and make a lot of pompous statements. … Obama probably
thinks he has more important things to do than to go to Berlin. What he
doesn’t realize is that his mask is coming off … giving way to the
partisan ideologue that appears to be the real Obama. If Obama went to
Berlin, he would have a chance to put his mask back on. Perhaps it’s
best that he stay home."

Well, that he did. Obama stayed home. Merkel did not. Walesa did not.

Of course, neither did Ronald Reagan. Reagan went to the Wall, and
demanded that Mikhail Gorbachev go as well. Perhaps if Reagan were alive
today, he would amend his famous exhortation at the wall, maybe saying
something like, "Mr. Obama, Go to that Wall!"

Alas, Obama did not. And that’s really too bad.