Americanization Of Europe

Maybe I had it all wrong. A British blogger's post to one of my columns complaining about the Europeanization of the U.S. thought I was the one who had it all wrong. He thought it was Europe that had become too much like the U.S.
To the extent that Europe had embraced our vacuous hip-hop culture, our violent and racy Hollywood films and TV - our progressively degrading culture generally - he has a point. He is no different from the "family-values" voter over here. But there is another side to this.
Politically, the average European is joined at the hip with the average left leaning Democrat. They are both Democratic socialists, post-Christian secularists and doves, who will never play hardball with warlords or totalitarian states, preferring to negotiate repeatedly, always leaving the matter unresolved, as each crisis arises. Sort of a "peace in our time - Neville Chamberlain attitude - as civilization falls apart.
Barack Obama's choreographed campaign trip to Europe underscores this symbiotic relationship. Germany's Der Spiegel International said it best in its headline: "No. 44 has spoken." It went on, "Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessaule ... could recognize that this is the man who will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious - he wants to become president of the world."
Even before this trip Europeans were solidly behind him. The Telegraph.Co.UK reported that McCain is favored by only 15 percent of the Brits - ditto in France, Germany, Italy and Russia. Fifty-six percent of Russians see the U.S. as a "force for evil." (They felt that way about Reagan, too.) Even Australians poll 50 percent for Obama to 41 percent for John McCain.
A German magazine has dubbed Obama "The American Idol." Another European paper called him "a rising star in Europe." Another noted, "Obama mania runs rampant," and still another trumpeted, "Obama is an honorary European." One commentator observed, "Response from the European media and from the cultural elites has been euphoric." Another thought, "Maybe those American barbarians will return too their senses." (Meaning European sensibilities. Sounds like another Saddam Hussein supporter.)
Think back. In 2000, Al Gore was polled as a clear winner over George Bush by a 3 to 1 margin in a global poll conducted in 250 countries. When John Kerry ran in 2004, the Brits polled 74 percent Kerry, 5 percent Bush. The French polled at 65 percent Kerry to 5 percent Bush. Even back in 2004, The Institute for Foreign Relations in Paris hailed Europe as "get-rid-of-Bush country."
Perhaps with photo ops in mind, Obama went to a gym twice on this tour. He looks good shooting baskets. In a Berlin gym, while working out, he encountered an attractive 27-year-old blonde who was on a treadmill. She was, in fact, a reporter for Das Bild, a German tabloid. (This is a politician whose handlers hand-pick reporters to interview him.) She had her picture taken with him, but Obama said he was "hustled." The reporter, according to her paper, described Obama as "very cute ... I'm still in dream ... Barack put his arms around my shoulders. Wow! He isn't even sweating! What a man.! "(Bill Clinton - move over. Barack is at least an authentic athlete.)
One sobering comment from a European leader: A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she didn't really understand why Obama wanted to make a major policy speech in front of Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate. "It is unusual to hold election rallies abroad. No German candidate for high office would even think of using the National Mall (in Washington) ... for a rally because it would not be seen as appropriate."
But this is a guy who had flyers printed in German to get 200,000 people to turn out for his American campaign rally in Berlin. It isn't really that clear what office he is a candidate for. Obama said in one soaring Berlin rhetorical moment, "People of the world, this is our moment! This is our time!"
Just what is he talking about? Is he a candidate for secretary-general of the United Nations? His speech writers gave him a line that wouldn't work in Peoria, Ill.
What more could the Europeans possibly know about Obama that we don't know? Americans don't really know who he is. After graduating from Harvard he had a stint as a community activist, then got elected to the Illinois state senate - one of 59 state senators not noted for any accomplishments - then elected to the U.S. Senate and did nothing but run for president. He chaired the Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on European Affairs, and acknowledged that he hadn't any oversight hearings because he got busy running for president right after he was elected.
Yet they love him in Europe.
Obama tells us he sees himself as a "symbol of possibility the whole world is looking for." And in his book, "The Audacity of Hope," he proclaimed, "I serve as a blank screen..." In Berlin he intoned in his rich baritone voice that America must "lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good." (Wasn't Saddam Hussein an "immediate evil?") We hear this constant drumbeat of ambitious idealism. Obama is a liberal idea whose time has come - a figment in the imagination of every European and Democrat. No accomplishments or substance. As he himself says, "a blank screen."
No wonder Hillary lost. She has a record.