'Brandenburg Gategate'

'Odd." That's what the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, said when told of Barack Obama's plan to deliver a major campaign speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, right where the Berlin wall used to be, where Ronald Reagan once famously called upon the Soviet Union to "tear this wall down," and not far from where John F. Kennedy once said "Ich bin ein Berliner" — "I am a Berliner" — to show his solidarity with the citizens of what used to be a divided city. One can see her point: We too would find it odd if foreign politicians made campaign speeches in front of the Lincoln Memorial, or asked to use the Washington monument as a political backdrop...

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