In Berlin, Obama gets the rock star treatment

He's young.

He's handsome.

He's charismatic.

He's eloquent.

He's very, very smart.

And, perhaps most importantly, he's not George Bush.

There's none of the hawkish rhetoric or the cowboy-style approach to foreign and domestic policy.

Instead, you get a real promise of positive change in America's trans-Atlantic relations and our role in the world.

You get a sense of someone who is motivated by compassion and common sense rather than greed.

You get a much-needed sense of hope in these seemingly hopeless times.

And that is why more than 200,000 people gathered in Berlin yesterday to see and hear Barack Obama.

"The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," Obama said, as he stood not far from where the Berlin Wall once divided East and West. "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," he said.

Amen. Obama gets it.

On the other hand, if McCain -- who has been sounding more and more like Bush lately, with his tough-guy talk, decreasing eloquence, and increasing number of gaffes -- were to visit Germany today, would he receive a welcome half as warm as Obama's?

I strongly doubt it.

But then the Germans won't be doing the voting in November.