Both Obama, McCain get a taste of Germany, but in very different ways
Some suggest Obama's speech to thousands in Berlin is a bit presumptuous
9 a.m. Friday, July 25, 2008
"I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city," Barack Obama said to a crowd of thousands.
It was the photo opportunity the Obama campaign had been waiting for: Their candidate delivering a rousing speech before more than 200,000 in the German capital of Berlin.
"Let us answer our destiny and remake the world once again," he said.
It was a speech -- and an audience -- befitting an American president.
"Fantastic. We wait for Obama, and he is here, and it's very exciting for us," one German citizen said.
But back in the States, critics suggested the speech was more than a little presumptuous.
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"He is not our president, but he thinks he is," one Ohio resident said.
Perhaps to drive the point home, John McCain dined on German food while talking to small business owners in Columbus, Ohio.
"I'd love to give a speech in Germany, a political speech or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in," McCain said. "But I'd much prefer to do it as President of the United States, rather than as a candidate for the office of presidency."
Later, the candidate appeared at an event with Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.
While McCain promised to increase funding for the National Cancer Institutes, he wouldn't commit to a dollar figure.
"It's easy particularly, in all candor, for liberals to go out and say 'I'll give you all this,' but do you know the debt we've laid on you, future generations of Americans?" he said.
Obama arrives in France this morning where he will sit down with with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mccain will meet with the Dalai Lama in Colorado.
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