It is one of the most famous sound bites in political history – John F Kennedy’s impromptu closure to his speech in West Berlin in 1963. The speech by the assassinated President was made shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany put up the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West.

International media commentators have drawn a parallel between that speech and the crowd that listened to it, and the speech delivered on Thursday by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

The first difference that must be pointed out is that Mr Kennedy was actually the President of the US. Mr Obama is not. The speech delivered by Mr Kennedy was regarded as one of his best and touched all the right notes, speaking to a nervous and anxious crowd – the Cold War affected everyone in those days – yet the pressure must have been tenfold on the isolated West Berliners.

Kennedy was revered in Germany from that day on, and here we must also draw a parallel. Republican candidate John McCain has said that he would love to address crowds in Europe, but only as President of the United States – adding that he wanted to concentrate on things at home in the run-up to the election. And here is the parallel – many might not know it but Kennedy, as much as he was revered in Europe and at home, was also reviled by a substantial chunk of the US population.

Mr Obama’s speech in Berlin can be considered a PR masterstroke, but it will do him no favours with the conservatives back home who will not vote for a coloured/young/Europhile/celebrity presidential candidate. Is Mr Obama modelling himself on Kennedy – at least projecting that image in Europe? The tone of the speech was one of setting a new world order, and a new role in that order for the United States. A speech can be considered great according to a number of criteria; the reaction of the crowd, international reaction, political reaction, intellectual reaction and of course action in itself – for example Boris Yeltsin’s rallying call from the top of a tank rallying the population against a military coup.

Mr Obama certainly got the reaction from the crowd and internationally – both in the media and politically. But is a speech great if one merely spouts out what the crowd wants to hear? Mr Obama spoke about the need to do away with fundamentalism, the need to become citizens of the world, to do away with war and trade barriers. Fine, fine words indeed. But is it the hallmark of a truly great speech?

First of all one must put it into context... a speech like that is delivered by Barack in his personal capacity, not Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Secondly, he didn’t really say anything of substance and third, the man oozes charisma. Germans regard their politicians as being dull, grey and boring. Mr Obama is mixed race, witty, funny and knows how to play to the crowd. Perhaps it was a bit conceited of him to speak in the manner he did and again, he didn’t really say much concretely. But there is a maxim – the only thing worse than bad publicity is no publicity. Is it a premature victory tour of Europe? Time will tell, but in the meantime, it’s certainly refreshing to have such a charismatic young leader doing something a bit different.