Brandenburg Gate not venue for Obama speech: aides

By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama has decided against using the Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop for a speech in Berlin, his aides said on Friday. The Democratic White House candidate plans to travel soon to Jordan, Israel, Britain, France and Germany. The Berlin speech will be one of the major events of the tour. "Barack made clear to us very early ... that he didn't think it made sense at all for him to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, which he thought would be too perhaps presumptuous," said Denis McDonough, a senior foreign policy aide to Obama. Some Obama advisers had tentatively raised with German officials the possibility of holding the speech at the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of German unity. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said through a spokesman she would frown upon using the landmark for... [read full story]