Citizen of the World?

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The New York Sun

So Barack Obama, whose father is from Kenya and who attended school in Indonesia, now appears before a crowd of 200,000 cheering Germans in Berlin to proclaim himself a “citizen of the world.” It makes you wonder whether he’s running for president of America or secretary general of the United Nations, and it is reminiscent of Senator Kerry’s ill-fated 2004 debate pledge to subject American policies to a “global test.”

Not that these columns are against a judicious internationalism. Mr. Obama’s turn toward the idea of global responsibility is actually a welcome note coming from someone who spent the primary campaign demagoguing Senator Clinton on the charge that free trade deals her husband signed were sucking American jobs from Ohio to Mexico and Canada. If you are really a “citizen of the world,” why should it matter? It is also a welcome turn for a candidate who spent the primary campaign complaining that the War in Iraq was costing too much money that should be spent on American roads, bridges, education, and health care. If you are really a “citizen of the world,” Iraqi infrastructure is as good an investment as American infrastructure.

We’d settle for a president who is a citizen of America, thank you very much. Or at least one with the humility to recognize that the president is elected by Americans, not Germans. In the meantime, it is hard to take Mr. Obama’s speech as anything more than the pandering to which he is prone. What else to make of his proclamation that “America has no better partner than Europe”? What about Japan? What about Canada and Mexico? What about Israel? Maybe Mr. Obama would make a good ambassador to Germany or France in a McCain administration, though he’d have to be watched closely for clientitis.

It’s amazing how far away Mr. Obama will travel to avoid Senator McCain’s invitation to participate in a series of joint town hall meetings. As the Democratic primary season wore on, the more voters got to see of Mr. Obama the less they seemed to like him. Maybe Mr. Obama’s campaign aides are hoping that if they can just keep him out of America for the rest of the campaign he might be able to eke out a victory in November.


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