By Paddy
Seems that Senator Obama has a fan in Germany.... and it's not Angela Merkel. Maybe she's worried about ticking off her masseuse?
BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin's mayor said on Thursday he would be pleased if U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke at the Brandenburg Gate and sharply criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel for opposing such an appearance.
Through a spokesman, the conservative Merkel made it clear on Wednesday that she would frown upon Democratic contender Obama using the capital's most famous landmark for "electioneering" on a visit expected this month.
Her stance has already been rejected by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a member of the rival Social Democrats (SPD), and he was joined on Thursday by party ally Klaus Wowereit, the popular Berlin mayor.
"I cannot understand the stance of Mrs. Merkel," said Wowereit, who has ultimate responsibility for approving events staged in Berlin.
"We should be happy if the potential American president wants to come to Berlin to hold a big speech," he told reporters in Berlin. "That is a compliment and a good sign for German-American friendship. We shouldn't lay obstacles in his path but welcome him."
UPDATE- Seems Angela had a little pressure from her masseuse not to let Obama do his speech at Brandenburg Gate.
Why now? What happened on July 7th?
The opening of the G-8 Summit in Japan.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (roughly the equivalent of the Wall Street Journal) reported that an irritated Bush administration staffer approached the Chancellor's foreign policy adviser Christoph Heusgen during the G-8 Summit and expressed his disapproval. The phrase used in the article is "angeblafft," or "snapped at."
In the following days, the Bush administration made its bitterness even more apparent:
Indeed, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt told the mass circulation tabloid Bild that "it would be nice if the German government would focus on strengthening its contacts to us rather than already beginning to look for our successors."
The Chancellor's office immediately complied, choosing not to address its concerns privately to the Obama campaign but to publicly leak its disapproval --- committing an embarrassing diplomatic faux pas that now risks Germany's future relationship with someone who could be president of the United States.
More at the link.
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