Obama schedule taking shape

Still no word on when Barack Obama will be in France, though the rest of his schedule is starting to leak. Aides are said to be seeing if they can reserve the area around the Brandenburg Gate for a July 29 speech in Berlin. An Israeli paper has also reported that he will arrive in Israel on July 22 or 23. That would seem to suggest that he might hit Iraq or Afghanistan first, jump over to Jordan and Israel, and then move on to Europe.

I guess the campaign has decided that Germany would be the best place to do an outdoor event, both because of the location (US Embassy near there, JFK speech, etc) and because a crowd of adoring German fans is harder to use in negative campaigning than a crowd of the French. If it indeed does go forward, it will be interesting to note what his advisors decided on highlighting. So far his reconciliation with Europe appears to consist of leaving Iraq, fighting climate change, and not being George Bush. In other words, more details would be welcome.