All irrelevant nonsense about the poetic “citizen of the world” reference aside, it’s hard to see Obama’s Berlin speech as anything but momentous. In large part it is because of the message, both the plain message and the underlying one: while fiercely patriotic to America, the speech was also welcoming and accepting to the world. What Obama did, in part, was to roll back the clock, bring us back to the days after 9/11, and showed what Bush should have done, and in lieu of that, what people around the world will not only accept but strongly desire–that we do our best to erase the past seven years and start over again with new hope and optimism. Even as he outlined the challenges and dangers and called for sacrifice, he evoked an image of international community with America at its center which should have been the legacy of 9/11, instead of the Iraq War and relative American isolationism which have so richly rewarded Osama bin Laden’s efforts. This speech in Berlin marked a desire to change all of that, and to bring the world closer together. It showed that America can again become a respected world leader.

But from a different, more specific perspective, it was momentous in another way: it showed the kind of president Barack Obama can be and the kind of president John McCain cannot be. McCain might complain about the coverage Obama has been getting on this trip, but what he cannot deny is that Obama did it all, with no favors or favoritism from anyone else. McCain either couldn’t or, more likely, did not even try to make his past trips this momentous, he probably could not have generated the interest and focus, and imagining him up there in Germany giving that speech almost evokes an incredulous chuckle. But it comes back to the point: McCain never even tried. He didn’t think to do something like this, just like Bush did not do when he should have back in 2001. All he thinks of is stuff like visiting American cities named “Berlin” as a cheesy theatrical trick, while releasing increasingly negative ads and coming close to calling Obama a traitor who wants to lose the Iraq War. Compare that with Obama’s travels and his magnificent speech in Berlin, and McCain looks like a cheap, petty huckster compared to Obama’s statesman.

The media machine will have to work overtime to dispel this truth and prop up McCain as someone who somehow is a credible presidential candidate.