[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAhb06Z8N1c&eurl=http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/obamaroadblog/gGxyFs[/video]
I have openly declared my admiration for Barack Obama before (here and here). I have always been very much preoccupied with the prospects of changes in American foreign policy – especially with respect to its ties with Europe and global organizations. I remember disagreeing with Antal Daniel, a Blogactiv blogger, on this issue. While I’ve always felt that Obama as president would mean a total shift of paradigm in world affairs, both this article written by Obama himself a year ago and his recent visit to Berlin make me think twice before claiming this. The story with the visit goes pretty much along these lines: Obama was more of a rock star than a politician, with extatic crowds of 200000 people cheering for him, and with a speech that reminded everybody of the messianic figures of the American nation (i.e. Kennedy and Reagan).
Obama called for renewed ties with Europe, reminding people on both sides of the Atlantic of their shared identity and of their need to fight global ills together. He spoke of lofty ideals such as global citizenship, anti-nuclear pledges and fair trade. His rhetoric was brilliant and nobody can deny it – not even McCain, jealous of all American media pundits having followed Obama in his European tour and of all important American TV stations broadcasting live Obama’s speech. You can read more about the content of his message here and here.
While I definitely admire the brilliant courage displayed by Obama’s campaign team in orchestrating this European tour, I cannot fail to notice two serious issues with his strategy:
1. Europeans are incredibly dissatisfied with the Bush administration and with how the US viewed the rest of the world in the last couple of year. Three out of four Europeans would vote for Obama. Probably three out of four New Yorkers would vote for Obama. But the United States is not Europe, and it’s not New York. “Real America” is far from what European yuppies share with America, and the question is how did Obama’s European tour impact on real Americans. I am afraid they were not very much pleased with his glamorous rhetoric…
2. Even The New York Times, renowned for its liberal views, criticized on its front page Obama’s failure to address real fault lines between Europe and the United States: Afghanistan, solid fuels, agricultural subsidies, trade. Do read this extremely interesting article in NY Times!
Thus, I wonder what would be the real and effective impact on Europe and global affairs in general should Obama become the next American president. Is it just pop star glamour or are there actually commitments to bringing about substantial change in how the United States acts in the world?
But right now he doesn’t need to create more controversy, he needs to show that he has popular support everywhere, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. I think this is brilliant and that it will work perfectly in favour of him!
The speech was great, it’s just that the public is more and more jadded. If Obama would have delivered this in the ’80’s there would nothing but praise for the context, the text and the way it was spoken.
But you’re mostly right about the American heartland being something different from New York and from Europe…
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We all know i think that Mister Obama does not write his speeches. He is an organization that delivers things and ideas and someone in his team decided to deliver a speech that focuses on general issues…because its easier to stay neutral and a bit pathetic!
I think if we look at all his speeches we will find that he touches a lot of real issues and problems in a very presidential candidate way. At the end of the day though he will never be hands on anything, he is there to inspire not to get his hands dirty…and on this issues he is great!
If you’re interested in the perception of Obama in Germany, the open think-tank atlantic-community.org offers an analysis as well as an interesting 15-minute video compilation of person-on-the-street impressions of his speech: http://www.atlantic-community.org/index/articles/view/Obama_in_Europe%3A_Continuity_We_Can_Believe_In