By the content of his character, yes he did
Even die-hard opponents of Barack Obama will soon miss the noble attitude he displayed with such superior ease, writes Richard Herzinger
Barack Obama will have come full circle on his visit to Germany at the very end of his second and final term in office. His first visit to Germany in August 2008 marked the beginning of "Obamania" — a boundless euphoria ignited by the man onto whom millions around the world had pinned their hopes. His visit later in November will again feature little more than symbolism, just as it did eight years ago following his stirring speech in front of the Siegessäule victory column in Berlin, where he made the case for the moral and political renewal of the US and the West. It will be even more symbolic — this time because he will no longer wield any political power and because Donald Trump will succeed him as US president. For Obama, symbolism is not a trivial matter. The one thing that he managed to preserve in his eight years of an exhausting and politically rather unsuccessful tenure is his ability to rhetorically lift political issues up into the sphere of moral and philosophical abstra...
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