By TROY MCMULLEN
ABC News
Berlin, Germany, Jan. 8, 2008
Americans enthralled by Barack Obama's sudden rise to the top of the political heap will have plenty of company when they tune in later today for the New Hampshire primary results. Europeans, who typically have little interest in U.S. presidential primary contests, are likely to tune in as well.
...Obama's popularity has soared in Europe since his startling win in Iowa, with European newspapers and television networks from Stockholm to Berlin to London now filled with images of the Illinois senator.
In Paris, stories about Obama replaced President Nicolas Sarkozy's love life on the front pages of the newspapers Le Figaro, Libération and Le Monde, which on the day after the Iowa caucuses proclaimed: "The Greater America opts for the New Man."
...London dailies followed suit. "Race reshaped by the son of Kenyan goatherd," blared The Times of London, which, along with the Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian, featured large photos of Obama in front-page articles. Multipage spreads adorned the inside of top-selling British newspapers.
Here in Germany, where many were surprised to see Sen. Hillary Clinton place third in Iowa, major newspapers printed headlines comparing Obama with John F. Kennedy, still a revered figure in Germany and particularly in Berlin. A headline in The Berliner Morgenpost this weekend screamed "The New Kennedy." The tabloid newspaper Bild, the largest selling news daily in the country, went with, "This Black American Has Become the New Kennedy!"
...Observers say his sharp rise in popularity in Europe is fueled by more than his staunch opposition to the war in Iraq, which has long been unpopular in Europe.
Gary Smith, executive director of the American Academy in Berlin, says that although Obama is still far from the White House, he's accentuating what's good in American politics — if not in America itself, particularly as the end of the Bush era looms.
"Europeans are tired of the image of a divided America," said Smith. Obama's rise "gives a sense of hope and optimism of a more inclusive America that is likely to mend fences abroad, particularly in Europe."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/Story?id=4101774&page=1
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