Germany's Got a Crush on Obama

[MadBadger]

Is Obama the new Hoff?
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/germanys-got-a-crush-on-obama/

Germany’s Got a Crush on Obama
By Nicholas Kulish



BERLIN — Germany has developed a serious case of Obama-mania.
Barack Obama’s high standing in Germany goes beyond his opposition to the unpopular war in Iraq. The country’s sudden crush is bound up with near-constant comparisons here between the young senator from Illinois and President John F. Kennedy Jr. – still admired in Germany and particularly in Berlin.

The Berliner Morgenpost over the weekend ran with the headline, “The New Kennedy.” The tabloid Bild declared, “This Black American has become the new Kennedy!” And the headline for the lead editorial in the Frankfurter Rundschau read simply: “Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama.”

“Only a small, informed minority knew about Barack Obama in December,” said Christoph von Marschall, Washington bureau chief for the Tagesspiegel newspaper, whose book, “Barack Obama, The Black Kennedy,” came out then. He said after the Iowa Caucuses last week, interest in Mr. Obama and sales of the book – which is presently sold out on the German Amazon Web site – suddenly surged.

Mr. Obama’s newfound popularity among Germans underscores not only the breadth of his appeal but also the opportunity he might have as president – though far from even his party’s nomination – to mend fences abroad.
“There are similarities between JFK’s time and today,” said Karsten Rossow, 49, of Berlin, who was visiting the small Kennedy Museum by the Brandenburg Gate Sunday, on a dark, snowy afternoon, with his wife. “People are ready for the politics of change.”

While the whole world follows American elections, Germans learned to pay particularly close attention because of the unparalleled influence that the United States had as both occupier and protector after their country lost World War II.

Some are reserving judgment. “It’s too early,” said Udo Schacht, 53, at a train station on Friedrichstrasse, the street where the
Checkpoint Charlie border crossing once stood, “to say that he’s the new Kennedy.”

[ingac70]

1. Not exactly a good thing for Obama...

Germany has a tendency to latch on to the weirdest and cheesiest Americans.

[hayu_lol]

2. Berlin also has one street...

Onkel Tom's Allee named for the Beecher-Stowe book's character.

[Yael]

3. "Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama"

That has tragic undertones that I don't even want to contemplate.

[EV_Ares]

4. Germany among many Americans and others in the world. People

in this country and the world want some good strong leadership. The world would like to see a leader come out of this election with "change" and the ability to unite not divide. You have that in Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, not Hillary.

[peoli]

5. I have no doubt this is a sentiment shared worldwide.

[Drunken Irishman]

6. Don't you always find it interesting that Kennedy is more well received than Reagan there?

[frazzled]

7. Gee, our world image repaired already

I'm not saying Hillary couldn't do that (she was an ambassador during her husband's administration). But with Obama, perhaps the symbolism of it alone will make it instantaneous.

I can't see the rest of the world having any interest in Edwards whatsoever: he has done not a thing except carp on corporations in the interest of domestic policy. He's had no foreign policy experience: even during his years in the Senate he never served on the FP Committee. So there would be no easy route to repairing international image here.