Reply #27: TPM - Report: Bush Officials Not Happy About Possible Obama Speech At Brandenburg Gate

[Satyagrahi]

Report: Bush Officials Not Happy About Possible Obama Speech At Brandenburg Gate
By Greg Sargent - July 10, 2008, 3:48PM

There's been an interesting twist in the ongoing behind-the-scenes discussions over whether Barack Obama will deliver a speech on July 24th at Berlin's historically-charged Brandenburg Gate.

A new report in the German press says that Bush administration officials are unhappy with the idea and privately said as much to representatives of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(...)

Now Der Spiegel has added a new twist to the tale.

From the mag...

The respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported this week that a member of the Bush delegation approached Merkel's foreign policy advisor, Christoph Heusgen, at the G-8 summit in Japan to discuss misgivings about Obama's planned speech. The government is also acting out of respect for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has long enjoyed strong ties to Germany and good personal relationships with a number of high-level government officials in Berlin.

The report is unconfirmed, and the paper cited here doesn't have an English translation, but Der Spiegel describes it as "respected." If Bush officials are privately trying to nix a speech that would give Obama a major boost it's an interesting development and raises more questions, such as whether the administration is possibly letting efforts to help McCain intrude on back-channel diplomacy in other areas.

More:
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/report_bush_officials_not_happ.php

In fact, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is the most respected newspaper in Germany.