German Chancellor Merkel, French President Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Brown, Russian President Medved and….Sec. of State Hillary Clinton will meet in Berlin today to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Umm…wait, backup. Clinton? Where’s our President?
The White House has offered a simple explanation…there’s simply no way to fit it into the President’s schedule. Interesting. Apparently there was time in October when Obama went to Copenhagen to unsuccessfully lobby for the Olympics. The White House has made clear that there’s time to head to Oslo, Norway next month to accept his Nobel Peace Prize. And there certainly has been time for him to attend a record breaking number of fundraisers around the country.
The President should have made time for a short trip to Berlin. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a seminal moment for the world–and marked a victory for freedom over repression. That’s something to celebrate. Surely it deserves a little of the President’s time.