When Obama is most eloquent

In analyzing President Obama's speech to a "small crowd of Berliners," Victor Davis Hanson notes that

Obama is most eloquent when warning us of a government modeled after himself.

I’m sure the small crowd of Berliners agreed with most of what was said in the speech, and remain largely supportive of Obama, and share the latter’s critiques of the pre-Obama U.S. Yet their leaders might appreciate the irony of it all: Europe and Germany got what they wanted, and now they will have to live with it: an increasingly statist, chronic $1 trillion annual deficit; a U.S. whose economy may not pull anyone out of recession; an administration that can do almost anything it wishes because there is no longer an American adversarial press; a U.S. that is a supporter of Erdogan’s Turkey and Morsi’s Egypt; an increasingly hollow NATO, led from behind by a U.S. that is facing big defense cuts; and a president who really is not into the whole idea of a unique West and its exceptional history or culture — much less any special relationship with Europe, past or present.

But on the other hand, the Europeans are probably not much into their unique past or culture either.