Back to basics for Obama

Re “In Berlin, Obama calls for unity with Europe,” July 25

Barack Obama’s speech before 215,000 Germans shows that glimmer of hope so many of us can see coming if he is elected president of the United States.

The lack of global respect for the U.S. can be traced to the disrespect for the international community President Bush showed when his administration decided to ignore so many during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.

I believe those 215,000 people who showed up to hear Obama in Germany share what many Americans and others around the world feel right now. Maybe the America we all once knew will come back thanks to Obama’s leadership.

Alfred Ray Waddell

West Dennis, Mass.

Why would Obama attract a crowd of more than 200,000 in Berlin?

Europeans miss the America they used to know -- a country they could trust to take the high moral ground and provide world leadership.

Perhaps Europeans are demonstrating their hope that Obama offers an opportunity for the United States to regain its stature as a respected advocate of what is right.

William Goldman

Palos Verdes Estates

Considering Obama’s enthusiastic greeting and speech in Berlin, has anyone reminded him that he has not yet been elected or inaugurated president?

For a reality check, he should visit the Thomas E. Dewey and Michael S. Dukakis presidential libraries on his return trip to the U.S.

Peter M. Small

Lake Forest

Obama’s Berlin speech, with its historical allusion to Ronald Reagan’s “tear down this wall,” was an ironic insult to his hosts.

Huge numbers of Western Europeans, probably of the same progressive bent as the crowds flocking to see Obama, viewed Reagan as a unilateralist, not-very-bright cowboy and one of the worst American presidents ever. (Sound familiar?)

One wonders if Obama was enamored with Reagan’s rhetoric at the time, or whether he was in the camp that viewed it as dangerously provocative.

David Goodwin

Los Angeles

Now that Obama’s international trip has ended, so too will the constant series of attacks from the McCain campaign. They are busy working on the logistics for their own upcoming trip to the Ottoman Empire, Prussia and Siam.

Steven Pogact

Los Angeles

Re “Obstacles linger for Obama,” July 25

After reading the transcript of Obama’s speech in Berlin, I thought, “Now, who could find anything wrong with this speech?”

Then I read your article in which a Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter says she won’t vote for Obama because of some perceived slight against Clinton.

All I can say to these people who feel they can’t “connect” with Obama because he’s too “aloof,” that “he’s acting as if he’s already president,” that he should have attended a cancer forum in Ohio rather than dare to be well-received on the world stage, is this:

If McCain -- an anti-choice buffoon who (like Bush) can’t say three words without having to spit out his foot and is likely to appoint more right-wing judges to the Supreme Court -- wins, you will have deserved him.

I give up. America deserves McCain. I’m ordering a McCain bumper sticker today.

Carine Fabius

Los Angeles