Europe awaits Obama arrival
Polls indicate high approval
PARIS - From prime ministers to college students, Europeans want to cloak Barack Obama in a warm embrace when he arrives on the continent next week. But they're also aware that anything that looks or smells like elitist Old Europe could hurt the Democratic contender with voters back home.
Obama is expected to make stops in Europe and the Middle East during his trip, which is expected to include Afghanistan and Iraq. Though he has yet to finalize his itinerary, in Europe he is already set to skip Brussels, the capital of the modern united continent, for the traditional symbols of economic and military power: London, Paris, and Berlin.
Leaders of those capitals have expressed a willingness to adapt their schedules to see the US politician, whose sky-high approval ratings in their countries are at least as good as their own. Polls reveal that, if they could vote in the United States, between 53 percent and 72 percent of the British, French, and German public would pull the lever for Obama.
"If Britons elected American presidents, Barack Obama would have no worries," began an editorial in the left-leaning British paper, the Guardian.
Yet the editorial also recognized his popularity in Europe would not help at home: "To be seen as Europe's pet is the last thing a presidential candidate needs - especially one who wants to shed his elitist image with white working-class American voters."
In France, where Obama's liberal profile appeals to both Socialists and members of President Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right party, pundits recalled that four years ago most of Europe gushed over Democrat John F. Kerry (who spoke impeccable French).
"Look at what good that did him," a Sarkozy friend noted dryly.
"We're not trying to give advice to Americans," said Samuel Solvit, 22, a French business student who started a "For Obama" committee in Paris. "We just wanted to show that we admire Senator Obama because he can renew politics in America - and in the world."
Clearly, the centerpiece of Obama's European visit will be a speech in Berlin. Across Europe, the chattering class has been caught up in the polemic within the German government over whether he should give that address in front of the historic Brandenburg Gate, where the Berlin Wall once towered.
Obama's staff was in Berlin on Tuesday scouting other locations after Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said that the German leader was "very much interested" in meeting with Obama but was not enthusiastic about him using the gate as a backdrop.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, an Obama supporter, said he had no problem with the candidate stopping at the gate. "The Americans decisively contributed in saving the freedom of Berlin, so we should make it possible for them to speak at historic sites," he told the newspaper Bild.
Earlier, Obama's advisers were quoted in the German media saying he wanted to answer criticism that he'd shown little interest in Europe - having spent only 24 hours here in the last decade - by rekindling memories of a youthful Democratic President John F. Kennedy, who in 1963 famously declared at that spot "Ich bin ein Berliner!" (I am a Berliner.)
In expectation of Obama's visit, London's Observer printed an editorial titled, "The world is waiting to love America again."
"Should he win in November," the editorial predicted, "Obama's priorities will be domestic ones but he also has a formidable opportunity to recast America's relationship with the world."
