[The
Times, U.K.]
Le Figaro, France
Obama Superstar:
'Mission Accomplished'
"The enthusiastic welcome
extended to him showed how much he has already contributed, solely by his
presence at this stage in the presidential race, to restoring America's luster.
It's been a long time since the United States benefited from such a public
relations exercise overseas."
EDITORIAL by Pierre Rousselin
Translated By Kate Davis
July 26, 2008
France
- Le Figaro - Original Article (French)
Mission accomplished. Barack
Obama returns to the United States having succeeded in his emergence into the
wider world. Reputed to be inexperienced because he only has three years of his
term as senator behind him, the Democratic candidate has shown that he has no
difficulty dealing with the international scene.
Europeans, for their part,
were able to verify for themselves the formidable effectiveness of the campaign
of the first Black man to run for the presidency of the United States. The
“Obamania” sweeping Europe has only been reinforced.
We must recognize that the
charisma and seductive power he displayed in Germany brought to mind John F.
Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. But the comparison is misleading: although the two
former heads of state wrote a page of history in Berlin, it was because they
embodied the leading power on the planet, and at crucial moments during the
Cold War.
Barack Obama had come to the
symbolic city to get himself elected. That's very different, although, there
again, he was a complete success: the enthusiastic welcome extended to him by
200,000 Berliners showed how much he has already contributed, solely by his
presence at this stage in the presidential race, to restoring America's luster.
It's been a long time since the United States benefited from such a public
relations exercise overseas.
If the Democratic candidate
is elected in November, the Obama effect will be compounded and the
reconciliation between Paris and Washington will be even more justified than it
is now.
OBAMA-SARKOZY
PRESS CONFERENCE; REPORTERS' QUESTIONS
In receiving his guest at the
Elysée Palace, Nicolas Sarkozy could therefore note with pride how much “the
French love the Americans.” The face of the United States presented by Barack
Obama, this “convergence of views,” on so many issues, comes just at the right
time to justify the return of our country to NATO's unified command and the
search for better transatlantic relations.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Afghanistan will be the first
test for the next American administration, whoever leads it. Barack Obama
intends to ask Europeans to do more. He didn't explain how he plans to win that
increasingly bogged down war. If he hopes to get the allies to make
additional sacrifices, he's going to have to use all of his powers of
persuasion to convince the European public and governments that the game is
worth the candle.
THE DAILY SHOW COVERS OBAMA'S BERLIN SPEECH
A superstar in Berlin,
anointed in Paris, Barack Obama will have to come down to earth and plunge back
into the election campaign. His European triumph won't automatically make him
the next president of the United States.
After the success of his
tour, he will have to take care not to add his name to the long list of
politicians that became more popular abroad than in their own countries: Tony
Blair, Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa …
CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US July 26, 5:36pm]
