Citizen Plain

"Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world." - Barack Obama, Berlin.

This was the moment.

Senator Obama's World Tour 2008 peaked on a Thursday in Germany. Before a tremendous crowd he delivered the capstone speech, the summation of his trip and his candidacy for President of the United States. This was the moment.

Europe has anxiously awaited this moment. Obama-mania dominates the continent. John McCain is a mere punctuation to the Obama juggernaut. Senator Clinton was the only rival, and vanquished, she is now an ally. The path is, to European eyes, unobstructed. As DER SPIEGEL's chief foreign desk editor Gerhard Spörl said, "Europe is witnessing the 44th president of the United States during this trip."

This was the moment Senator Obama had before him: the eyes of the world, the throngs of Europe, a stage and a setting burned indelibly into the consciousness of the west. A triumphal moment. A moment which the Senator opted to use to point out that he, unlike previous American speakers at the historic Victory Column, is not a white guy. Stirring.

"I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city," he said, to the sound of oohs, ahhhs, and cheers from his fans. Then he yet again explained the variety and diversity in his personal life story, as he so often does. I am many, he implies, I am all of you. This was the moment. Indeed, it was a perfect moment, in which he condensed his entire trip, if not the majority of his campaign theme, into two opening paragraphs, before the largest crowd he's yet entertained. I am Barack Obama, he says.

This was the summation of the Obama world tour. This great crusade of 2008 consisted of a whirlwind tour of 8 countries, replete with photo-ops and speeches, meant to, among other things, impart an image of Obama the World Leader to voters back home. Or, in Obama's words, "The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with (leaders) ... who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years." No wonder he commissioned his own seal, he's already been elected!

Obama's concert tour has been widely hailed as a wild success. The fawning media responded much like the German crowd: cheering often, not always sure why. The question is, what was the trip successful in doing? Did the trip boost his image among undecided American voters? Did it bolster his foreign policy credentials? Did it correct his failure to visit Iraq in the last few years? What is the measure of success? This was the moment; how did he measure up?

Not that well. For starters, he didn't gain very much in the polls. Gaffes like the Landstuhl cancellation and questions about the sincerity of the Wailing Wall incident certainly played a part in the lack of bounce. Yet, there is more to the story than the polls.

The tour also failed to provide any major moments for the media. The Berlin speech was notable for the size of the audience, but not the content of the message. It was a flat speech, one which, by Obama standards, was a veritable bore. Like most of the trip, there was little of substance to latch onto. Ask a friend or coworker what they remember most about the world tour. It is highly unlikely that they will respond with his words, or a policy statement. More likely they will recall him playing basketball, or the size of the German crowd. Perhaps they'll recall President Sarkozy of France showing his warm acceptance of Obama. This was the moment? Aside from not achieving a world moment, Senator Obama didn't even manage an Obama moment. Where is the yes we can video from this, his debut foreign trip?

Still, though, the campaign obviously intended this trip to serve as image maintenance on some of Senator Obama's weaker issues. Did his image repair bid fare any better?

Senator Obama has enjoyed a following so devoted and taken that it has prompted national discussion. Senator Clinton mockingly raised the possibility of celestial choirs, and Senator Obama himself suggests that he has become a symbol of American possibility. In his St. Paul speech, he declared that he was certain the future would reflect on his nomination and pinpoint it as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

Moment after moment, Senator Obama's campaign has suffered the ill effects of hubris, real and perceived. If image repair was the goal of the trip, then it was a grand failure. Consider that, following his "The One" tour, Democrat stalwart and feminist icon Susan Estrich felt it necessary to warn against arrogance. She subsequently had to write a second column defending herself after being savaged for having the audacity to point out that Obama hasn't actually been elected yet. (The column is also noteworthy for addressing the ongoing saga of disenchanted Hillary supporters and their continuing second-class status among supporters of "The One".)

Somehow, Barack Obama managed to put together a trip that failed to provide any Matthews-esque leg thrilling moments, yet still emphasized and exacerbated the issue of his conceit of assured victory; still highlighted his, his campaign's, and his supporters' belief that he is the harbinger and catalyst for humanity's next great moment. A trip that was both plain in content and breathtaking in presumption; a dubious if exceedingly difficult accomplishment. Entirely fitting, though. The cult of personality doesn't require much outside of the personality itself.

Senator Obama's image gained little from his hohum campaign trip. Yet his candidacy suffered blows on its weakest points. He took hits on the botched troop visit in Germany, and he exacerbated growing concerns about a messiah complex. This was the moment? Obama's victory tour of the world was not only a premature moment, it may prove an obstacle to the very victory it so rashly celebrated.