After
his speech at Berlin's Victory Tower, Obama is greeted
By
some of the hundreds of thousands who came to hear him.
Cotidianul,
Romania
Obama's Victory Would
'Revive America's Image' in the Eyes of Ordinary People …
"Anti-Americanism has always been
a topic of discussion in Western Europe, even a common one, especially among
the intelligentsia. But the reign of George W. Bush gave a patina of legitimacy
to European prejudices and brought into line the attitudes of intellectuals,
politicians and the masses against the United States. In the Bush era, the
American century plumbed its lowest depths and anti-Americanism became the new global
religion."
Senator Obama at Berlin's Victory
Column: He appears to many Europeans as the antithesis of Bush, which goes a long way toward explaining his wild popularity there.
Barack Obama was greeted like
a superstar in Berlin. He wasn't acclaimed for his indisputable talent at
oratory, but because he's the antithesis of the much-derided current
president. The senator is a lot like a European, while Bush is
perceived as the embodiment of the lack of high culture and barbarism which is often
- and too often wrongly - attributed to America and Americans. Unlike
Bush, Obama seems to oppose a patriotism that verges on nationalism, which frightens
a Europe that wants to be post-national; and he appears to advocate a middle path
between a pragmatic liberalism and an attenuated form of socialism that is closest
to the European spirit.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Anti-Americanism has
always been a topic of discussion in Western Europe, even a common one,
especially among the intelligentsia. But the reign of George W. Bush gave a patina
of legitimacy to European prejudices and brought into line the attitudes of intellectuals,
politicians and the masses against the United States, and made ridiculing Bush a
habit in cafes and eateries. In the Bush era, the American century plumbed its
lowest depths and anti-Americanism became the new global religion.
The vehemence of the
political class dissipated with the ascension of the Merkel-Sarkozy duo at the head
of the Franco-German condominium - the eternal anti-American tuning-forks of
the Western world. But the resentment of the intellectuals is rather impossible
to stop. Reputable scholars, from Umberto Eco to Habermas, still decry
the position of supremacy that Europe lost to America, and consider the mass
culture exported by the United States as a perpetual threat to what should be a
more-refined European spirit. Consequently, Obama's rise can only improve the
way Europeans feel about the American masses. The repositioning of the United
States in terms of the preferences of ordinary people may be the most important
consequence of Obama's European tour and the potential of his mandate as
president. In other words, the rehabilitation of the market
value of the United States as an export product.
BARACK OBAMA
SPEAKS BEFORE 200,000 AT THE VICTORY COLUMN
But given the underlying negative
feelings that exist among Europeans, the anti-American continuum will again reach
a climax if, like Bill Clinton who made history by bombarding Serbia, Obama decides
to put on his cowboy boots.
