Jeb Bush Flunked His Berlin Test

Jun 10, 2015 9:37 AM EDT
By Leonid Bershidsky

When Barack Obama spoke in Berlin in 2008, one could see how and why he would get to be U.S. president. When Jeb Bush made his appearance here Tuesday, he showed how and why he probably won't.

In 2008, a crowd of 200,000 gathered to hear Obama at the Victory Column in Tiergarten. He started by talking about his father, who herded goats in Kenya and yearned for the freedoms and opportunities of the West. It was an easy transition from there to Berliners' own such yearnings, and to the U.S. airlift that kept West Berlin alive during the Soviet blockade.

Obama's narrative was one of partnership: No amount of U.S. help would have worked without Germans' determination, he said. His audience cheered; they could relate to that.

On Tuesday, Bush arranged to speak before a much smaller audience of about 1,000 suits at the annual business conference organized by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party. Bush also referred to his father. George H. W. Bush was no goatherd, but he is respected in Germany for helping to bring about the country's reunification. For Bush senior's second son, however, talking about the 41st U.S. president was a way of not bringing up the 43rd, his older brother.

"The Bush name now stands for loutishness and amateurism, as well as for the world where might makes right," the business weekly Wirtschaftswoche wrote in advance of the Bush visit. Most Germans would agree.

more...

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-10/jeb-bush-flunked-his-berlin-test