One thing I noticed about Obama's speech in Berlin was how good he is at bringing up the topics his hosts would rather were left unsaid. He did it was his Father's Day speech, and at various education unions. But to bring up, in Germany, where anti-Muslim sentiment and xenophobia are prevalent, how "the walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand" is impressive. Even better was when the senator observed "that just as American bases built in the last century still help to defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice greatly for freedom around the globe." As the crowd applauded that sentiment, Ezra Klein observed in real-time that he "just got them to clap for the Iraq war." That, my friends, is public diplomacy.
--Tim Fernholz
