Barack Obama would be a shoo-in for US president if Germans
instead of Americans were voting: a poll released Sunday showed 72 per cent of
Germans prefer the candidate for the Democratic nomination to his Republican
rival John McCain.
The survey of 501 Germans by Emnid pollsters for the German Sunday newspaper
Bild am Sonntag showed the presumptive Republican nominee had just 11 per cent
of Germans behind him.
Asked what the next US president should do first, 34 per cent of respondents
said he should beat world poverty and undernourishment.
Separately, the news weekly Der Spiegel said senior German officials had
pressed Obama to stage a major public speech in the heart of Berlin when he
visits Europe later this month.
The magazine said German government officials had arranged for an Obama
campaign official to meet with the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, and float
the idea that Obama address a crowd at the Brandenburg Gate, close to the new
US embassy that opened Friday.
The spot, once crossed by the Berlin Wall, is infused with history.
In 1987, Ronald Reagan as president of the United States stood up nearby and
appealed to the Soviet Union's last communist leader in Moscow: "Mr
Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
The Wall has gone and tourists now come from round the globe
to make symbolic walks through the monumental gate, dpa reported.