That whole column is hilarious....
but scary that Americans are viewing him as the messiah.
Europe certainly isn't fooled...Germany was fooled once before by an egomaniac that wanted to rule the world.
Polls in the United States don't seem to show people thinking of Obama as a Messiah, I think we're still trying to size him up and waiting for the debates. It's nice to hear someone who can think in complete sentences and speaks well, it's good to hear someone speaking of working together and solving our problems, we want to know him better before we leap completely. (Fair notice: I'm an independent, but I'm moving further into the Obama camp. He can still lose me, but I'm enthusiastic about what I see so far.)
On the other hand, Europe, usually quite skeptical of American politicians, seems to be going wild over him.
I just did a spot check of newspapers and magazines that I used to read when I lived there. Here's what I saw (I lived in Berlin for 8 years, I read German media at the time, I am not as familiar with the English papers I quote from.)
Heres the account from Der Spiegel, which was the best selling political magazine at least when I was in Germany:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,567919,00.html
No. 44 Has Spoken
By Gerhard Spörl
Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious -- he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world.
It was a ton to absorb -- and what a stupendous ride through world history: the story of his own family, the Berlin Airlift, terrorists, poorly secured nuclear material, the polar caps, World War II, America's errors, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, freedom. It's amazing anyone could pack such a potpourri of issues into the space of a speech that lasted less than 30 minutes.
So what sticks? That Barack Obama is a passionate politician who is fixated on -- and takes very seriously -- his desire for a better world. That he is an impressive speaker who knows how to casually draw his audience into his image of the world -- one who doesn't have any need to resort to the kind of cheap effects that tend to prompt the uproarious applause of an audience. That he is a typical American -- an idealist in the true spirit of the American success story who is now very casually making his claim to becoming something akin to the president of the world.
This is surprising for a variety of reasons. Der Spiegel is usually a bit cynical, especially about American political figures, and appeals to a very educated crowd. For them to give credit to an American candidate for a solid grasp of and presentation of world history shows that they see substance in him, a grasp of the workings of history that they certainly did not credit our current president with.
There's the photo shoot with Angela Merkel, who had denied Obama's request to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, and who looks definitely charmed by the man - and Angela Merkel is one tough cookie, who is not easily duped. You can see this as part of this spread:
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/cme1,222816
Today's article in Der Tagesspiegel talks about how Obama's speech not only resulted in great enthusiasm among his fans, but was a tremendous advertisement for the city of Berlin. (It uses the 200,000 figure too, incidentally.) If you read German, you can see it here:
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/Obama-Besuch;art270,2579689
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung has an article speaking of the German longing for the "good American", a return to the America that lived up to its ideals:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/373/303368/text/
It also complains that Obama was not allowed to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate, making a sideways reference to Michael Ballack.
Here's another English language account from The Local:
http://www.thelocal.de/13285/20080725/
I've only looked at about 7 newspapers from Germany. But they generally do seem amazingly enthusiastic about Obama, especially considering that they are German newspapers speaking of an American politician.
Jonathan
P.S., and Der Focus has this spread showing the "promises of love" between Obama and France's prime minister:
http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland...rkozy-liebesschwuere-in-paris_aid_320332.html