Big in Berlin

Where they crowded to the fan mile west of the Brandenburger Tor to celebrate the football championships they came yesterday, over two-hundred thousand strong, for Barack Obama. That I find something approaching awesome.

But would I, if a registered American voter, cast my ballot for him? Many whose intelligence and liberalism I admire are not convinced that he is présidentiable, suggesting that he scores on style but limps wrong-footed when it comes to substance.

But yesterday's show in Berlin indicates that if it's style that ultimately counts, this guy is on his way to Pennsylvania Avenue.