“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser...

During this back-and-forth over Thursday’s speech in Berlin at the Victory Column there was a good deal of cross-talk and sheepish Obama advisers dancing around the obvious - that from Jordan through the rest of the trip everything is a campaign event ...

Lastly, the campaign repeatedly dodged questions about whether it would position a camera crew of its own at the Berlin speech for the express purpose of shooting the scene for future campaign ads. The campaign will bring its standard videographers who shoot for the campaign website to the Citadel today and there are no arrangement for a separate commercial camera crew at that event. That there may be one at the Berlin speech suggests that event could produce footage for future Obama campaign commercials.