Obama and Kennedy: The Torch has been passed …

Diario Economico, Portugal

Definitively, Barack Obama

is the Candidate of Europe …

"Europe sees Barack Obama as the antithesis of George W. Bush. And confronted with the state of the world, this is something that makes all the difference. Seen from the Old Continent, Obama symbolizes the American spirit to the European heart. He may not represent the full complexity of America, but he certainly represents the America that exists in Europe's wildest imagination."

By Carlos Marques de Almeida

Translated By Brandi Miller

January 25, 2007

Portugal - Diario Economico - Original Article (Portuguese)

Definitively, Barack Obama is the candidate of Europe. The fact that he’s Black, can carry on good social discourse and has cultivated a casual and sophisticated image makes Obama the perfect portrait of an American liberal. But whether or not the senator is a product of talk shows and is the very definition of a style that epitomizes the ideal of “change,” Europe sees Barack Obama as the antithesis of George W. Bush. And confronted with the state of the world, this is something that makes all the difference.

Seen from the Old Continent, Obama symbolizes the American spirit to the European heart. Barack Obama may not represent the full complexity of America, but he certainly represents the America that exists in Europe's wildest imagination.

In a nation still marked by the American “cultural wars” of the 1960s, the issues of race, religion and gender continue to influence the political discourse. Perhaps in a surprising way, Barack Obama has sought to define himself as the candidate of a new era, a universe apart from radical politics and ideology. In aspiring to a new era, Obama approaches Ronald Reagan, not in the policies he proposes, but certainly in terms of his presence and inspiring oratory. Like the Reagan coalition, which succeeded in uniting fiscal and social conservatives nationally, if Obama achieves a fully-fledged "grand social coalition” around the Democratic Party, perhaps Obama’s dream will become Obama’s revolution.

In a most comprehensive way, Barack Obama has unfolded a political discourse centered on an ideal and the “audacity of hope.” In a Europe where the word [hope] alludes to a remote reality, it should be stressed that hope is the secular version of faith. In political terms, hope implies tolerance in the present and the idealization of a common destiny. When Nicolas Sarkozy designates his plan for the banlieues [suburbs] “Suburban Hope,” he will be specifically invoking a political appeal for hope. In strict contrast, when the Pope is prevented from speaking at Sapienza University in Rome, this shows a refusal of hope and an appeal for a partial and sectarian vision that threatens the rule of tolerance as universal to Western civilization.

In Portugal, the political argument of hope is both common and rare. Common in speech, but rarely acted upon. By virtue of the government and the state of the nation, Barack Obama is the Socrates of the nation. So is there still room for hope in Portugal?

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[WM POSTED Jan. 29]