Germans seem to love Barack Obama

According to a press report the Germans are getting excited about Mr Obama and hoping he wins the presidency. Has anyone any idea why the Germans feel this way or if any Germans they associate with have expressed such emotions. Maybe it is just a slow news day.

For the full report click on the link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...ction-2008.html

It could be that Eurovol has more influence in Germany that we suspected

Ahhh...could it be because Obama's a socialist?

Beware... Enough of the U.S primaries topics already, I, for one, think there are too many

Was not really about the primaries, I was just wondering why the Germans thought so much of Mr Obama and what they expected him to do for them. (If he were president that is)

My German colleagues and friends are so disgusted with Bush that they just want any party other than Republican. They'd be happy with Nader, honestly. They haven't expressed much opinion one way or the other between Clinton and Obama (other than one being very concerned about his ability to gain respect in the middle east because "they don't like black people"), and they wouldn't really care if the US sunk into the sea. They just don't want to go down with it, and step one for them is getting the Republicans out of office.

I can remember visiting Germany a lot during Bill Clintons tenure and all that clap-trap about Germany being Americas no.1 european ally etc etc. Lots of Germans I knew were suddenly speaking English with diabolical "pretend" American accents though before Clinton their English was spoken normally. Mr Bush appeared and suddenly the terrible false accents disappeared. Odd, I know.

I guess Obama represents the biggest amount of change. He is young, he is black and he is not a member of the american royal families (Kennedy, Clinton, Bush). He is the candidate the least like the current president.

I think it's also because a number of Europeans think he is in the mold of a European social democrat.

hmmm, a lot of Americans seem to love Obama as well!

I guess it is time to have a closer look at Barack Obama.

First, I think the article mentioned by the OP and another one in the same vein, Crazy about Barack – Obamamania infects Germany, Spiegel Online Int., May 26, 2008, are over the top. Certainly Germans are attracted by Obama's personality and notice the enthusiasm he inspires, and they give him credit for being an early opponent of the Iraq war, but IMO the majority has only a very blurred idea of his political program (me included).

I perused his website again and got the impression that he offers a unique mix of liberal (in the European sense), social democrat and conservative ideas:

• Liberal: civil rights – his promoting "fair trade" (read protection of American interests) rather than free trade is not so liberal though
• Social democrat: health insurance, support for unions, rise of minimum wage to "living wage", more control of finance industry to protect consumer, criticism of special interest influence in politics
• Conservative: strengthening the family

His views on foreign policy are an even more diverse portfolio of ideas: emphasis on diplomacy, but also: "strengthen Nato", namely make the other member states contribute more; expansion of the military; reliance on soft measures concerning Iraq: pull out all combat troops within 16 months, promote regional diplomacy (and including Iran and Syria), press for internal Iraqi reconciliation.

Europe gets no special mention, but "new partnerships in Asia". This corresponds to a remark in the Spiegel article linked above: "'Obama has no relationship with Europe whatsoever,' said Hans-Ulrich Klose, the foreign policy spokesman for the center-left Social Democrats." So yes, there are some question marks about lofty European ideas of Obama.

The German Obama fans are just jumping on Obama's bandwagon with everyone else.

Yes probably, Germans like the entertainment value of the US presidential campaign. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand a politician like Obama going by German categories. Someone like him wouldn't be able to succeed within any of the German parties where "party discipline", i.e. voting according to the party line in ballots, outweighs the freedom of choice (Gewissensfreiheit) that every member of Parliament actually enjoys. Deviation can lead to being thrown out. So in this sense, too, Obama doesn't fit in any of the German political categories.

They (Germans) do have a knack for doing things like that...usually with limited knowledge...its all a popularity, media exposure thing. i mean look at how they regard comedian, satirical film maker Michael Moore, who uses satire, comedy and fast paced editing to deliver his message...in Germany they take it for fact and truth.

And as far as Obama fittin into the German political scene, why would he want to? The german political scene is about as chaotic, confusing and total train wreck as they come. No wonder they continue to raise taxes to keep paying and covering up their time wasting, complacency and expensive incompetence. then again, Germany's Government is probably more efficient and effective than many other European countries (Italy anyone?)

It is called Progressive and not progressive as the new word for Liberal.


And you are just jumping on Hillary's bandwagon with all the others who think she is actually worthy of anything after not reading the NIE and voting to go to war with Iraq.

I don't think I've ever said that I support Hillary. But I am suspicious that Obama isn't all he's cracked up to be.

I had to laugh when I read the quote above. I think that is the American way. My wife was in working in the USA with a load of "educated" Americans and they wanted to go and see the film "U 571". My wife declined but the Americans persisted as it involved aspects of their work (communications) and how the Americans had single handedly captured the Enigma code machine and saved the day. Despite my wifes insistence that it was a fictional account of what happened they insisted that it was a true account of events as they happened.

Firing up the internet, she was greeted with gasps of amazement to find out that it was not the Americans that captured the machine, no disguises were involved, the actual British officer that picked up the machine did not know what it was but was interviewed about it on tv. The Americans were shocked and moved to say "But the film credits say it is based on a true story".

Poor dears but I suppose it was an easy mistake to make for the ex-grads given that they had believed the media hype and taking it for fact and truth.