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The Democratic White House candidate warned, not far from the footprint of the former Berlin Wall, that humanity must build "a world that stands as one," before a rapt crowd, the biggest of his campaign.
"The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another," said Obama, who has scorched through US politics at lightning speed to challenge Republican John McCain for the White House in November’s election.
"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," he said, referring to festering divisions between Europe and the
"The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand.
"The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down," Obama said in a speech covered live on German and
This refrain echoed former US president Ronald Reagan’s call to then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Berlin in 1987 to "tear down this wall," before the fall of Communism.
Obama’s speech, before the Victory Column in
It came during a Middle East and
But despite crowd chants of Obama’s slogan "Yes, we can" and its soaring cadences, the speech was short on specifics, and Obama’s foes will likely accuse him of empty rhetoric.
McCain took a swipe at his rival, visiting a German sausage restaurant in
His spokesman Tucker Bounds accused Obama of launching a "premature victory lap."
"John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting
Obama’s impact on US voters will also be closely watched, as huge crowds in
A Fox News poll showed Thursday that 51 percent of Americans believe Obama will win the election, with only 27 percent betting on a McCain victory.
A month ago, 47 percent of Americans believed that Obama would win the election compared to 32 percent for McCain.
In
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Obama also used
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In a speech that risked being seen as presumptuous, considering Obama will not even face US voters for another three months, he warned of a world where partnership was not a choice but the only means of survival.
"We cannot afford to be divided. No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone," he said.
He promised
But Europe must live up to its side of the bargain, he said, asking for more help in the struggle against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in
He also demanded more help for Iraqi civilians, for an effort to solve
Photo: Reuters