Drawing on his extraordinary oratorical skills to echo John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama reached out to the people of Berlin - and the world - to tear down new walls and unite around humanity's most urgent global issues.

"This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet.  Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.  Let us resolve that all nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere.  This is the moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as one.

"And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.

"Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment.  Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

"Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe?  Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?

"Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world?  Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law?  Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?"

Will we? Only if we elect Barack Obama instead of John McCain, whose idea of global "leadership" is going to a German-American restaurant and attacking candidates who give speeches abroad.

Update 1: Nice review from the Times of London:

And there is much more to him. He can sound high-minded yet rooted, idealistic yet grounded, exhilarated yet calm, warmly American and yet a bit of a European too. And, yes, presidential — it is there in his confidence and in his willingness to think and talk big with measured inspiration and an attractive humility. He didn’t go so far as to say "Ich bin ein Berliner", like John F. Kennedy all those years ago, but to judge by the excitement with which they greeted him, the Berliners clearly thought that he was that — and more.