On June 26, 1963, when President John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered his now-famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in West Berlin, he obligingly started out by recognizing the city’s mayor and the German chancellor for their “fighting spirit” and commitment to “democracy and freedom.”

The gathered throngs, as one would expect, responded with a healthy dose of applause and cheering. But when the popular young president proceeded to announce that his “fellow American, Gen. Clay” was in their midst, too, the crowd went nuts.

Lauded by the Democratic president, Gen. Lucius Clay, a confidant and adviser to former Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, immediately heard a deafening roar of approval from tens of thousands of Berliners who needed no full-name introduction to the man they considered to be “Father of the Berlin Airlift.”

Then, Kennedy, acknowledging Clay’s role during the toughest days of the Soviet blockade, nearly drove the crowd into delirium when he added that Clay would “come again if ever needed.”

Perhaps it was merely some red-meat rhetoric to get the crowd stirred up, but the reality was that just a short 15 years earlier the city was flat on its back, and Berliners knew who helped them get on their feet.

During his June 12, 1987, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, in which he said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” Republican President Ronald Reagan again, following the obligatory thanks to the German chancellor and the mayor of Berlin, proceeded to single out another fellow American who visited the same city just 24 years before: John F. Kennedy.

Letting the Berliners in on some bona fide inside American intelligence, Reagan confessed: “We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it’s our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom.”

Kennedy. Reagan. Messages delivered. Messages received. America is there for its friends. If people seek freedom, and are willing to sacrifice, there is no better partner than the United States of America.

Democrat. Republican. Independent. Libertarian. None of the above. It doesn’t matter. Party labels, convenient as they are to help us sort ourselves out back home, are dispensable.

First and foremost, and especially if standing in front of a world audience, there is one quintessential American message: We are the freedom people. Hardwired into our DNA, it is our original American brand.

Both Kennedy and Reagan knew this, not to mention their speechwriters.

Thus, foreign-soil speeches by American officeholders or aspirants, if they do not mimic the spirit, tone and generosity of Kennedy’s and Reagan’s, seem to be nothing more than under-nourishing Brand X knockoffs that deserve to be far back on the bottom shelf.

Granted, Barack Obama is not a sitting president, no one speech can accomplish everything, and freedom was dutifully acknowledged during his remarks last week in Germany. But what really bothers me is that the freedom thing was so clearly overpowered by the unity thing. World unity.

Like it or not, we live in this newfangled globalized world and we need to cooperate with other nations on a broad array of issues. And yes, pursuing our more perfect union is a sacred task that requires all our devoted vigilance.

But aren’t some things best said back home while having a family discussion, as opposed to yelling them at the top of one’s lungs at the mall? This Obamic phrase comes to mind:

“I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.”

As I re-read that phrase, out of context, I can’t say that I disagree with anything there, but it just seems inappropriate that an American politician would utter them, the way Obama did, on foreign soil.

What I really might be bothered about is the line that comes immediately after that: “But I also know how much I love my country.”

Hard to blast a line like that. Still, considering the overall tone of speech, it seems like Obama is referring to his beloved country as though it was some crazy uncle in the basement who was allowed out only on holidays.

“Uncle Frank’s really nuts these days. Doesn’t make much sense. Kinda selfish. Makes a lot of stupid mistakes. But, hey, I really love the poor ol’ dope anyway.”

Apart from missing an opportunity to invoke Kennedy, or do some outreach work by mentioning Reagan, Obama’s biggest blunder was delivering a high-profile speech as if he were trolling for German electoral votes.

Maybe he was simply practicing the “People of Earth” speech to get the lead role of Klaatu in the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

You can reach Jim Mills at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it