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<\/a><\/p>\nThe outcome of the US presidential election will affect the lives of millions of people around the world. So it\u2019s probably not surprising that many Europeans are resentful that only Americans will have a say in it.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Soeren Kern | Strategic Studies Group | January 30, 2008<\/p>\n European media are saturated with election coverage that is heavily biased in favor of the Democrats. And, as in past elections, European elites are also demanding the right to help choose the next occupant of the White House. What follows is a brief survey of what some Europeans are saying about the American way of democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n An editorial in the Brussels-based, center-right De Standaard<\/a><\/em> articulates a view shared by many Europeans: \u201cAmerican presidential elections are not \u2018home affairs\u2019. American decisions have repercussions all over the globe\u2026. Hence, the world should be given the right to vote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This view is echoed by the London-based, conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph<\/a>. <\/em>A column titled \u2018If Only We Could Vote for the Next US President\u2019 argues that \u201cMany Britons will feel it would be rather nice to have a vote, too. Well, maybe not a whole vote: I would settle for one worth 50 per cent of those cast by American citizens. After all, since we are a strategic colony of the US, it would be nice to have even a marginal say in how the empire chooses to dispose our goodwill and our blood and treasure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n What European elites really seem to want is the right to \u201chelp\u201d Americans choose the \u201ccorrect\u201d candidate. And if newspaper headlines are any indication, that person is, overwhelmingly, Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Indeed, across the continent, European elites are infatuated with Obama, who is now a cult figure.<\/span><\/p>\n In Germany, the center-right Berliner Morgenpost<\/a><\/em> proclaims that Obama is \u2018The New Kennedy\u2019 while the centrist tabloid Bild<\/a><\/em> says that \u2018This Black American Has Become the New Kennedy!\u2019 The left-wing Frankfurter Rundschau<\/a><\/em> compares Obama not only to Kennedy, but also to Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hamburg-based, leftwing Der Spiegel<\/a><\/em> asserts that: \u201cObama is the candidate of the idealists\u2026. Obama also happens to be the candidate of choice for the foreign press\u2026. Many in Europe would like nothing more than a \u2018European\u2019 America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In the Netherlands, the left-leaning De Volkskrant<\/a><\/em> reports that the US primaries are giving the Dutch \u201cgoose bumps\u2026. Obama has the authenticity that the Dutch electorate craves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In France, the center-left Lib\u00e9ration<\/a><\/em> says the new leader of the French Socialist Party should be someone with Obama\u2019s profile: \u201cThe French Left seeks a charismatic leader, age 46, of mixed race, to deliver a message of hope and unity. At a time when American Democrats are discovering their new hero, it would be a good time for the Socialist Party and their friends to find a Barack Obama to end their internal quarrels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, in an online poll at the center-left Le Nouvel Observateur<\/a><\/em>, Obama has an overwhelming 60 percent of the 2,680 votes cast, double Clinton\u2019s 30 percent. The late President Kennedy is lagging behind, with only 4 percent of the votes.<\/span><\/p>\n In Britain, the centrist Times of London<\/a><\/em> confirms that the Tories are suffering an identity crisis by reporting that \u201cTories and Labour both hope for a sprinkling of Barack Obama\u2019s stardust. Ripples of excitement from the campaign of the presidential contender have crossed the Atlantic, and British politicians are agog.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After months of glorifying Obama, European media have tried to portray his losses to New York Senator Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and Nevada as part of an elaborate conspiracy to keep a black man from becoming the 44th<\/sup> president of the United States. After Clinton won the New Hampshire primary, for example, the Milan-based, center-right Il Giornale<\/a><\/em> reported that Obama was the victim of vote-rigging.<\/span><\/p>\n In Germany, the Financial Times Deutschland<\/a><\/em> opines that \u201cthere is something narcissistic at the heart of the idea that Clinton was breaking down at the thought that America might be recklessly throwing away the chance to be governed by her. Chronic egocentrism, narcissism, self-pity\u2014these are exactly the qualities that to this day make Bill Clinton so hated by his enemies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The state-sponsored Deutsche Welle<\/a><\/em> argues that although Clinton\u2019s victory in New Hampshire is being put down to her display of \u2018genuine\u2019 emotion, it is actually a further example of \u201cUS politics descending into self-parody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n France<\/span>, meanwhile, dispatched its ambassador<\/a> to keep an eye on campaign events in New Hampshire. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interest in France in this election\u2026. The administration in Paris wants regular reports,\u201d says France\u2019s ambassador to the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n In an essay titled \u2018The End of the Obama Revolution\u2019, Der Spiegel<\/a><\/em> laments that: \u201cAll of those people who\u2019ve been dreaming of America\u2019s first black president now have to slowly wake up. It\u2019ll happen one day, hopefully, but not in this election.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Times of London<\/a><\/em> says that: \u201cFor all his talk of changing America\u2019s face to the world and rebuilding old alliances, Mr Obama has been notably reluctant to engage, particularly with Europe. As British and European leaders ponder the meaning and consequences of Mr Obama\u2019s sudden rise, perhaps they should be asking instead how much they really matter to him.\u201d Good point.<\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, another Times of London<\/a><\/em> story frets that: \u201cObama has made only one brief official visit to London\u2014and none elsewhere in Western Europe\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In an 800-word rant titled \u2018American Primary System Fails to Impress Europeans\u2019, Deutsche Welle<\/a><\/em> implies that if Germans cannot help Americans vote Obama into office, then the US political system itself must be flawed. DW asserts that American democracy is \u201catavistic. It\u2019s outdated. It doesn\u2019t really reflect democracy in a modern sense.\u201d The story goes on to say that America would be better off if it adopted a parliamentary system, just like the one in (surprise, surprise) Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n Some Europeans are beginning to wake up to the reality that a Democrat in the White House might not be in their best interests.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hamburg-based, conservative-leaning Die Welt<\/a><\/em> offers the most forthright analysis of the implications for Europe of a Clinton victory. \u201cFor Germany, it greatly matters who finally wins the presidential race. The Clintons are not naive admirers of Germany and\/or Europe. As heirs to an unpopular war in Iraq, the Clintons, after returning to the White House, would demand military coalition troop support from Europe. Indeed, as early as 2004, Gerhard Schroeder was warned that the worst possible outcome of his anti-Iraq war stance would have been a John Kerry victory. Because then the German chancellor would have had a friendly, but pushy partner in the White House who would have quickly put an end to Berlin\u2019s anti-American politicking by asking for assistance in Baghdad.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n According to the London-based Economist<\/a><\/em>, \u201cNor is European enthusiasm for either candidate likely to survive the election of Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama, or whoever else becomes president. The person who gets voters’ nod will rule as an American, promoting American interests around the world\u2014and no doubt disappointing many watchers from abroad. For Europeans to imagine anything else would be naive indeed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In Spain, El Diario Exterior<\/a><\/em> argues that an Obama victory could be especially counter-productive for the European Left, because it will show that America is not the racist state that European elites say it is: \u201cThe [European] Left, which likes to attribute to the United States an imperialist foreign policy and discrimination against blacks and Hispanics, is not as happy about the rise of Obama as one would expect. On sending the message that they are ready to elect an African American, a part of American society is exhibiting an attitude much less prejudiced than is commonly attributed to this country.\u201d The article goes on to remind readers that Europe\u2019s multicultural Socialist utopia has failed to beget its own Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n After seeing American democracy in high gear, European publics are fretting about the relative lack of democracy at home. As the Paris-based International Herald Tribune<\/a><\/em> points out in a column titled \u2018Don\u2019t Look for Democracy in the EU Presidency\u2019, \u201cunlike America\u2019s presidential primary elections, the start of Europe\u2019s presidential selection process foretells very little to do with revivifying democracy.\u201d It continues: \u201cThe choice of the European president is true to the EU\u2019s historical character. Rather than a popular vote, the selection process will belong to the council of chiefs of state and government\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, London\u2019s leftwing Guardian<\/a> concedes that America is doing something right for a change. In a rare case of introspection and self-criticism, the paper admonishes Britons that \u201creflecting on the wide-open campaign of 2008, it\u2019s obvious that British critics\u2014and European critics generally\u2014are guilty of smug superiority and ignorance in writing off the strengths of the American system.\u2026 Instead of dismissing American democracy in our snooty way, we need to ask what we can learn.\u201d Now that\u2019s a thought!<\/span><\/p>\n Soeren Kern<\/a> is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estrat\u00e9gicos \/ Strategic Studies Group<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Originally published in American Thinker<\/a><\/p>\nWhat Europeans Are Saying About American Democracy<\/strong><\/h3>\n