'It Is a Problematic Symbol'

How clueless is Barack Obama? It's one thing to be so haughty and arrogant that he believed he deserved to speak at Brandenburg Gate, it's quite another to speak at a site dedicated by Adolf Hitler.

Originally, Barack Obama had hoped to speak in Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate. That idea, however, was torpedoed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's doubts about turning the place -- where both Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton spoke -- into a stage for a campaign rally. Instead, Obama will appear in front of the "Siegessäule" -- the Victory Column -- down the street from the Brandenburg Gate.

That site too has been criticized (more...). The Victory Column commemorates three Prussian war victories in the second half of the 19th century -- over Denmark, Austria and France. It was also moved to its present site by the Nazis to make way for the construction of the never realized über-capital "Germania."

Then again, all this guy has going for him is symbolism. That, and a shamelessly fawning press corps following him around, slobbering over every pre-packaged word he utters.

He's truly an embarrassment.