![\"europe](\"https:\/\/soerenkern.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/europe-obama-11.png\" "\\"soeren")
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A brief selection of European news stories that typify what seems to be a general trend toward a return to more negative reporting about America, its people and its president.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Soeren Kern | PJ Media<\/a> | July 7, 2009<\/p>\n On the campaign trail, Barack Obama promised that he would \u201creboot America\u2019s image\u201d around the world. Indeed, many Americans who voted for Obama believed that his global popularity would somehow reverse the tide of anti-Americanism that so vexed his predecessor. Echoing this sentiment of Obama as saviour of America\u2019s image abroad, presidential advisor David Axelrod recently asserted<\/a> that \u201canti-Americanism isn\u2019t cool anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n In Europe, where anti-Americanism was elevated to the status of a religion during the presidency of George W Bush, the \u201cchattering classes\u201d have, by and large, toned down their criticism of the United States since Obama was elected. In general, European media coverage of Obama has been quite favourable and the vehemence of the anti-American rhetoric has been notably more muted than in recent years. But now, five months into the age of Obama, the highly vaunted transatlantic honeymoon may be coming to an end. During the past several weeks, European media have started publishing stories that criticize Obama and once again cast the United States in a negative light. Could this be a harbinger of things to come?<\/p>\n What follows is a brief selection of European news stories that typify what seems to be a general trend toward a return to more negative reporting about America, its people and its president.<\/p>\n In Britain, the left-leaning daily newspaper The Independent<\/em> asks<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cHas Obama been exposed as an innocent abroad? Barack Obama\u2019s foreign policy honeymoon may be petering out as events around the globe, whether in Israel, Iran or North Korea, conspire to expose some inconvenient realities about his vaunted olive-branch approach to international relations. A nicer America does not a nicer world immediately make. It would help if the \u2018Obama Effect\u2019 could be demonstrated actually to exist, even just a little.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In Germany, the news media have been especially angry over Obama\u2019s failure to close the prison for terrorist suspects at Guant\u00e1namo Bay in Cuba. The Financial Times Deutschland<\/em>, in commentary titled \u201cWorld\u2019s Hopes Dashed By George W. Obama,\u201d writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cThis decision [to revive military trials for some Guant\u00e1namo Bay detainees] isn\u2019t a belated insight, but the pathetic faltering of a man forced to confront a disastrous legacy\u2026. No one who defends these institutions ought to criticise Islam\u2019s Sharia courts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Munich-based center-left S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em>, in an editorial titled \u201cObama\u2019s Great Mistake,\u201d writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cObama\u2019s people certainly imagined things differently. But reality has caught up with them\u2026. Bush light, so to speak\u2026 Obama is discrediting both himself and the United States.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n German newspapers have also been fiercely critical of Obama\u2019s refusal to release more photos of alleged torture at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The Berlin-based left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung<\/em> writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cWith his decision to prevent the publication of the photos, Obama, who promised transparency\u2026is practicing opacity\u2026. That the president is abdicating leadership on this question is a tragedy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In another commentary, Die Tageszeitung writes<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever [Obama] takes a step forward, he stumbles backwards as well. That will likely be enough to disappoint all those Europeans who had expectations that Obama would be an almost messiah-like healer. It was expected that he would demolish all of the ugly monuments from the Bush era and then, together with Al Gore, plant a Garden of Eden over the top, through which he would drive fuel-efficient compacts from Chrysler.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Financial Times Deutschland<\/em> writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cObama promised that, under his leadership, politics in the US would be both more ethical and more transparent than ever before. The dark chapters of the Bush era would be illuminated as quickly as possible. But since Obama assumed a position of responsibility, it has become increasingly obvious that he cannot live up to these promises.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Hamburg-based left-leaning Der Spiegel<\/em>, which was one of the most hyperactive purveyors of anti-Americanism during the Bush presidency, has lately been back in full form. In recent weeks, the magazine has published a series of articles that are unusually critical of Obama. Some titles include: \u201cFrom Mania to Distrust: Europe\u2019s Obama Euphoria Wanes<\/a>,\u201d \u201cTorturing for America<\/a>,\u201d \u201cAmerican Gays and Lesbians Feel Betrayed by Obama<\/a>,\u201d and \u201cGM Insolvency Proves America\u2019s Global Power is Waning<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the favourite tactics used by Der Spiegel<\/em> is to interview American left-wingers in order to \u201cprove\u201d that the United States is every bit as bad as the German media say it is. In an article about the Iranian election titled \u201cExtraordinary Amount of Wishful Thinking by the US<\/a>,\u201d Flynt Leverett, an American analyst, assured Der Spiegel<\/em> that the voting irregularities in Iran \u201clikely weren\u2019t as bad as in Florida in 2000.\u201d In another article titled \u201cAmerica\u2019s Torture Legacy: Obama Isn\u2019t Off to a Good Start on Human Rights<\/a>,\u201d Joan McCarter of the left-wing blog Daily Kos, told German readers that a \u201ctruth commission could have real value in illuminating for the American people what the Bush administration did in our names.\u201d<\/p>\n Another Der Spiegel<\/em> article is a quintessential example of the magazine\u2019s signature anti-American style. Titled \u201cAmerican Recession Food: The Fat Crisis<\/a>,\u201d the article reports that millions of unemployed Americans are trying to save money by eating junk food at McDonalds:<\/p>\n \u201cThe recession is leading to unemployment, waves of bankruptcies and the decline of entire neighbourhoods\u2014and health and fitness problems for American citizens. Initial studies show that the crisis is impoverishing more and more people, which leads them to the most unhealthy and fatty foods. And this in an already obese and diabetic country.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The article fails to mention, of course, that Europe in general, and Germany in particular, is facing its own obesity epidemic.<\/p>\n In Britain, the media have been parroting the same theme of America as a terminal wasteland. The center-right Daily Telegraph<\/em> reports<\/a> that \u201cdozens of US cities may have entire neighborhoods bulldozed as part of drastic \u2018shrink to survive\u2019 proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. The left-wing Guardian<\/em> warns<\/a> that \u201cfar-right shootings raise fear of hate offensive in America.\u201d The killing of a black security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC is \u201cthe latest example of a surge in extremist violence, as the election of Barack Obama and the economic crisis breed resentment in a fanatical, racist minority,\u201d the Guardian<\/em> asserts.<\/p>\n In Switzerland, the St Gallen-based Nachrichten.ch<\/em> asks<\/a> whether America will go the way of General Motors. In a commentary, the paper writes:<\/p>\n \u201cThe triumph of US ideology after the Second World War was in no small measure due to the positive associations connected to America. \u2018Brand USA\u2019 was attractive and appealing. But this attraction\u2014just like the status of Cadillac as a dream car\u2014is long since gone. Instead there is a general unease toward the United States, a country regarded as aggressive, financially ailing, the birthplace of a global recession and partly autistic when it comes to understanding the sensitivities of other countries and their cultures.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Underscoring the hypocrisy that underpins so much of the anti-Americanism in Europe, many newspapers have expressed resentment over Obama\u2019s unwillingness to allow his European colleagues to bask in the limelight of joint photo opportunities. Commenting on Obama\u2019s recent trip to Europe, the Brussels-based EU Observer<\/em> ran<\/a> a headline titled \u201cObama Keeps Leaders at Arm\u2019s Length on Europe Trip.\u201d It reported that Obama, much to the dismay of his French hosts, turned down a dinner invitation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on top of the Eiffel tower.<\/p>\n Der Spiegel<\/em> ran<\/a> an article titled \u201cObama and Merkel: Trans-Atlantic Frenemies,\u201d which reports that the White House denied a request by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for face time with Obama. The magazine laments that \u201cGermany is increasingly being left out of the loop.\u201d In an editorial, the Neue Osnabr\u00fccker Zeitung<\/em> writes:<\/a> \u201cThe radiance of German-American relations today has its limits. In the G-8, as in NATO and in Afghanistan, but also in Obama\u2019s itinerary, the waning importance of Germany is obvious.\u201d In another article, Der Spiegel<\/em> quotes<\/a> Sarkozy as mocking Merkel: \u201cShe can\u2019t even host the US president in the capital city,\u201d he bragged, while \u201cI can meet him in Normandy and in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n In Italy, the Turin-based La Stampa<\/em> grieves<\/a> for the future of Europe. It argues that Europe\u2019s political class is secretly resentful for \u201cbeing abandoned by America in the face of the relentless advancement of European Islamization.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe the center-right Times of London<\/em> says<\/a> it best. In an article titled \u201cEventually, We Will All Hate Obama Too,\u201d the paper predicts:<\/p>\n \u201cSo Barack Obama, en f\u00eate around the world, will one day learn that there is no magical cure for the envy of others. What makes America the indispensable power (and even more indispensable in the era of the new China), is precisely what makes anti-Americanism inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n Soeren Kern<\/a> is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estrat\u00e9gicos \/ Strategic Studies Group<\/a><\/em>. Follow him on Facebook<\/a> and on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\nIs ‘Obamamania’ Waning in Europe?<\/strong><\/h3>\n