Conservatives complained that Obama's presidential-style appearance before an adoring crowd in Berlin was presumptuous, and some predicted that there would be an American backlash against a candidate who had such support from foreigners.
One U.S. official acknowledged that the administration was fully aware that its standing, as much as McCain's, was on the line. "The message would be pretty hard to miss," said the official, who insisted on remaining anonymous because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.
Obama has barely mentioned Bush by name during his trip. Nevertheless, he took shots at the administration at every stop -- far more than he leveled at McCain.
In Afghanistan, Obama suggested that the administration was moving too slowly in bolstering U.S. forces there and said that officials had not been forceful enough in pressing the new Pakistani government to move against the growing militant threat in that nation's tribal regions.
In Israel, he promised that he would move quickly to begin an Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, rather than waiting until the seventh year of his presidency, as he has accused Bush of doing. "I will not wait until a few years into my term -- or my second term, if I'm elected -- in order to get the process moving," he said.
Obama also said that he, unlike Bush, would not neglect his presidential obligation by letting generals alone decide whether it would be wise to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior commander in Iraq, has to think about how U.S. dollars can best be spent on the American mission in Iraq, Obama said. But it would be his responsibility as president "to think about how we could be using some of that $10 billion a month to shore up a U.S. economy that's really hurting right now. If I'm president of the United States, that's part of my responsibility," he said.
In his single appearance before a large crowd, at the Victory Column in Berlin, Obama offered a generally conciliatory message about the need for Americans and Europeans to work together on their common interests.
Though his language was muted, it was still clear that he was offering himself as the un-Bush, promising a less ideological American partner who would join forces on climate change, "reject torture and stand for the rule of law," and work jointly for nuclear disarmament. "The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," he said.
Obama's speech contained a number of messages less welcome to the Germans, including that their military needs to take on a bigger and more dangerous role in Afghanistan.
Der Spiegel cautioned its readers before Obama's arrival that they might not like what they would hear from "the American idol." Yet Europeans, it said, "have fallen in love with Obama -- mostly because he's not Bush."
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paul.richter@latimes.com
