Word: merkel
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Berliners lined up to hear the speech more than five hours before it began. All day long, hundreds waited on the streets to catch a glimpse of the motorcade that shuttled Obama among meetings with German officials, starting with Chancellor Angela Merkel. The German leader had objected to Obama's reported original plan to give what would have amounted to a campaign speech at the historic Brandenburg Gate. (Indeed, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. embassy in Berlin instructed foreign service personnel stationed there not to attend Obama's public rally, which the State Department labeled a "partisan political...
...city has been buzzing with anticipation over Obama's visit, and his reported request to use the Brandenburg Gate as the backdrop for his only public address in Europe sparked a local media frenzy. Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted with "bewilderment" to the Senator's request to speak at this historically charged location and appeared concerned that approving the request would be interpreted as taking sides in the U.S. presidential race. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, for his part, welcomed the suggestion that Obama speak at a venue rendered iconic by John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, saying...
...Obama will depart Jerusalem before dawn on Thursday to fly to Berlin, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Federal Chancellery and with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Foreign Ministry. Berlin is also where the only major public event of the trip is scheduled: a speech before what are expected to be tens of thousands at the Victory Tower in the Tiergarten. Campaign officials have been sensitive about the characterization of that event, insisting that it is a substantive foreign policy address, though given German enthusiasm for Obama, the atmosphere is expected to look more...
...with substance. The biggest public event will be a speech in Berlin, though the Obama campaign has yet to say whether he will give it at the historic Brandenburg Gate, near the former site of the Berlin Wall. (Campaign staffers reportedly were looking for alternate sites after Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her displeasure about the prospect of a presidential candidate speaking where Ronald Reagan in 1987 demanded, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!") Campaign officials are not even divulging which officials Obama plans to meet with, though some details have begun to leak. A diplomatic source tells TIME that King...
...some, it's Merkel's bewilderment that's bewildering. Speculation abounds that the White House pressured the Germans to deny Obama his made-for-cable-TV moment. So far not a shred of evidence has surfaced, but the whole affair led at least one German commentator to call on Obama to "put all this fuss to an end," have a quick tea with Merkel, pose for some pictures and get out of town...