Obama's Empty Rhetoric Starting to Wear Thin

Say this for Barack Obama: He’s optimistic. Yesterday in Berlin he promised to “remake the world,” envisioned a “new dawn in the Middle East” and mentioned walls tumbling down no fewer than 11 times. It was trademark Obama rhetoric, writes David Brooks of the New York Times: soaring and empty. Obama spoke as though the masses could mystically come together to solve all problems.

Brooks admits such rhetoric stirred his heart back in Iowa, but he has since grown disillusioned as Obama continues to avoid the serious political thinking he’s obviously capable of. The real Obama knows kumbaya won’t save the world, but he trots out the same platitudes for every rock-star address. “In Berlin, his act jumped the shark,” Brooks writes. “Optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.”