Obama meets Obamamania in Europe eager for change

David Knudson of Democrats Abroad displays an invitation card as supporters of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama hand out invitations for Obama's speech at the Victory Column in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, July 22, 2008. Obama will visit Berlin on Thursday, July 24, 2008 and will also meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski)

BERLIN—Barack Obama comes face to face this week with a constituency truly eager for change after eight years of George W. Bush: Europeans.

Obama can expect an enthusiastic welcome when he speaks at one of Berlin's most famous landmarks, the Victory Column, on Thursday -- the first of three stops in Europe, where polls show him as people's overwhelming favorite in the U.S. election.

Obama's youth, eloquence and energy have turned heads across the Atlantic, as has his call for change.

For Europeans, America offers two faces: one of cynicism, big business and bullying aggression, another of freedom, fairness and nothing-is-impossible dynamism.

If Bush was seen as embodying that first America, Obama is viewed as fitting the second role -- one that Europe has historically loved, respected and relied on.

On top of that comes his charisma. The German news magazine Der Spiegel splashed the headline "Germany meets the superstar" over a photo of Obama on its cover this week.

"Americans need a change, and what's good for America is good for the whole world," said Maike Smerling, a physician who was born and raised in the former East Germany.

Juergen Trittin, a leading lawmaker with Germany's opposition Greens, pinpointed the contrast between Obama's tour and Bush's much-protested visits over the years.

"We should be glad that an American is coming who people don't have to demonstrate against," Trittin said on N24 television. "The rest of Europe is jealous that Barack Obama is speaking here in Berlin."

Obama, who will continue to France and Britain after his Berlin stop, strikes a chord with European admirers of the American ideal that all should have equal chances of success.

"He's different from other politicians. He represents minorities and he's down to earth and smart," said Ioannis Ioannidis, a 27-year-old salesman in Stockholm, Sweden. "He comes from nowhere. He wasn't born into it, and it's got nothing to do with what family he's from."

But beyond that, Obama also is hitting the right notes with Europeans on issues that matter to them. Thursday's Berlin stop offers him a chance to reinforce that impression in a city where John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all made famous speeches.

In a speech last week on foreign policy, Obama vowed to fight global warming, stress diplomacy in dealing with Iran and produce a clear exit strategy for Iraq -- all issues on which Bush's differing approaches angered many Europeans.

Evoking a time when Europe looked to America with gratitude, Obama called for a 21st century Marshall Plan to alleviate world misery because "that can be our best investment in increasing the common security of the entire world."

Polls in the countries being visited by Obama make the presumptive Democratic nominee Europe's overwhelming favorite over his Republican rival, John McCain.

Some experts have a simple explanation for Europe's Obamamania. Josef Braml, an America expert with the German Council on Foreign Relations, put it bluntly: "He's not Bush."

But Europe's excitement over Obama appears to go deeper than just relief over the prospect of a break from the acrimonious Bush years.

For Europeans, perhaps, it isn't just that Obama is not Bush but that he has come to be seen as the "anti-Bush" -- a figure who represents such a startling contrast to the outgoing president that there is a sense the Washington power structure might be purged of much that Europeans see as wrong with American leadership.

Obama "projects the vision of a better America," said Georg Schild, an expert on German-American relations at the University of Tuebingen.

Europeans seem to feel the U.S. is on the brink of a fundamental change and see Obama as the protagonist of that transformation.

Such is the sense of the importance of the American election that France now has a French Committee to Support Barack Obama. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, fashion designer Sonia Rykiel and philosopher Bernard Henri-Levy are in its ranks, as are ordinary French citizens.

"These elections have repercussions on the whole world," said the committee's president, Samuel Slovit. "What happens in the United States will affect us here. It's the result of political globalization."

It's difficult to gauge how race is playing out in European attitudes toward Obama, who has been anointed by one German newspaper as "Der Schwarze JFK" -- the black JFK.

But the "feel-good" factor that many pundits have identified among educated white Americans in their support for Obama may at least in part be behind Europeans' eagerness to embrace a black U.S. presidential candidate.

Despite large minority populations across the continent, only a sprinkling of nonwhites even hold seats in Europe's parliaments -- forget seriously vying to be a national leader.

"It's a vicarious thrill," said Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Europe Program. "After they've switched off their TV screens they're not going to go out and find a black candidate to put forward to lead their own country."