Barack Obama Speaks to the World

Taking highlights from both Presidents Reagan and Kennedy, Senator Obama gave a rousing speech in Berlin Thursday. About 200,000 folks showed up to hear Obama urge Europe to join with America to defeat terrorism, clean up the planet and distribute wealth in a wider way.

The speech was mostly positive. Obama didn't deal much with Iraq and he built his words around Reagan's classic statement of 1984, calling for the Russians to tear down the Berlin Wall.

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RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

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BARACK OBAMA: The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

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All right. That wall metaphor. Although his remarks were directed at Europeans, they were also calculated to play well back here. And here is the strongest part of his speech:

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OBAMA: This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks that have struck in Madrid and Amman, in London and Bali, in Washington and New York.

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Now, I really like that. Trying to rally a cowardly world against terrorism is a good thing, no question. Now, the weakest part of Barack Obama's talk was this:

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OBAMA: Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

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Did you notice when he was talking about fighting terrorism, no applause. But when he was talking about that, plenty of applause.

Now, stand for the rule of law? I think that's what those of us who want secure borders and control over the immigration process want, is it not?

I'm not seeing many bias crimes in the USA these days. It doesn't seem like Americans are rejecting minorities or immigrants. So what is the senator talking about?

And enough is enough with this torture nonsense. In fighting a vicious War on Terror nearly alone, the USA has been restrained in its application of force. This torture on a mass scale garbage is rank anti-American propaganda, and Obama shouldn't be anywhere near it.

But all in all, Senator Obama did well, even though a new FOX News poll says his overseas trip has cost him a few points. He now leads McCain by just one percent. The surge stuff hurt Obama.

He wraps up things in Paris and London, and then returns home over the weekend.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

Ichiro the chimp made a break for freedom yesterday in Japan. The 42-year-old primate climbed to the roof of the zoo and wasn't coming down no matter how many trank darts they shot.

Click here to watch the feisty chimp give the zoo workers a run for their money!

Finally, Ichiro gave up after they gave him a banana. Should have thought of that in the first place. But he's a patriot for showing some spunk.

On the pinhead front, actor Josh Brolin is making a hate Bush movie in Louisiana. Allegedly, he got into some kind of brawl. His father, James Brolin, is sticking up for him.

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JAMES BROLIN, ACTOR: There were people that lived across the street that said there was no fight. There was — you know, how come nobody is suing for being hit, you know? So there was no fight. I would bet that a lot of the videotape, just like the Pentagon, we'll never see those tapes.

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Just like the Pentagon? What does that mean? Now, he's married to Streisand, so we have to give him a little slack, but it sounds like Mr. Brolin might be a pinhead.