Barack Obama's Popularity Soars - In Germany

BERLIN: Barack Obama's popularity extends far beyond Iowa and into the heart of Central Europe. Germany has swiftly developed a serious case of Obama-mania.

Obama's high standing goes beyond his opposition to the Iraq War, which has always been unpopular here. The sudden crush is intimately bound up with the near constant comparisons here between the young senator from Illinois and President John F. Kennedy - still admired in Germany and particularly in Berlin - which have stuck fast as his identity in the German press.

The Berliner Morgenpost over the weekend ran with the headline, "The New Kennedy." The tabloid Bild went with, "This Black American Has Become the New Kennedy!"

An editorial in the Frankfurter Rundschau went one historic president better with a headline that read simply: "Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama," adding that "hope and optimism" are "the source of the nation's strength."

Obama's newfound popularity among Germans underscores not only the breadth of his appeal but also the opportunity he might have as president - though he is still far from the White House, much less his party's nomination - to mend fences abroad as well as at home.

---EOE---

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/06/europe/berlin.php

A President Obama would be a chance at a new beginning internationally

Otherwise he'd be the new Jerry Lewis.

consider our president to be just and visionary and admirable.

I think of John Kennedy's address in Berlin.

If Barack Obama suggests to Germans an evolved form of citizenship, it will be in sharp contrast to the model George W. Bush has represented for the last 7 years.

The true respect of our allies is difficult to quantify, but it's very present by its absence in the Bush administration.

She says glimmers of respect for us are returning.

He's telegenic. He's fairly liberal. He deeply understands other cultures. And he's frickin' movie star beautiful! What's not to love?



PS: I'm an Edwards fan, but the truth is the truth.

epic

We can hope that once he is out of office, international opinion will quickly turn back in our favor.