Bush could have possibly done some great damage control in the past 3 years with our Atlantic friends (nothing to be proud of though since he did the initial damage himself), but it is probably more due to the rise of conservative leaders in Germany and France that really helped to mend the awful diplomatic wounds Bush opened. If the last 7 years are guide, the resilience of the alliance to stay together and expand, without a clear looming enemy (USSR), is good news. The political, social, and economic ties between the United States and Europe, that have been building for 60 years, are not about to abruptly cease to flourish. I think the relationship has progressed so much that Europe and America don't “need” an enemy to maintain the alliance. All of the invisible and side benefits that the alliance provide, such as -unprecedented- stability, are more important now.

If this is the case, then progressives don't have to worry about our allies loving us again, they already do – they're just waiting for a clean-non Bush-slate to show they're affection. For example, if Obama wins the presidency, I predict the crowds he will draw in Europe will rival, if not exceed, the crowds he drew in America. And now, the consensus on both side of the isle is that America needs support from the Europeans to successfully accomplish geopolitical and philosophical goals. Everyone is finally figuring out that its better to share and work together, what a shock, hurray!

Interesting. I have often spoke on this very thing and find considerable resistance to such a notion.

I use the following quote from another post here at TMV by the Official Chinese Daily paper to support what the OP and I have been saying for years.

It said that his victory also demonstrates, “the opportunity that the world's most responsive democratic system gives its voters to be inspired by an unknown; the opportunity that outsiders now have to reassess the superpower that too many of them love to hate.”

The United States and most notably its citizens who seek progressive links to the future seem to want to be wedded at the hip to the past when it comes to European relations.

America, Isolated from Europe by distance and distracted from Europe and Russia by 14 years of political infighting that has been centered around internal policy matters at home has failed to realized that the world has changed drastically since 1989.

The time for a new and revitalized foreign policy that is clear, concise and defined is at hand. I fear that this new crop of candidates are stuck in the same old ways of the past.

McCain and his “America is the lone superpower” approach.

Barak Obama and his “I haven't a clue what Im doing” approach. I say this because his policy is not well defined. It is only a generic “Most aggressive diplomatic approach in many years” really does not lay out a foreign policy so much as it more specifically tells us what he is going to do.

Both approaches are lacking in a new vision of a new world with new realities. They both seek a golden time when things were great. When America was respected and valued as a true world leader. Those days are rapidly fading into the mirror as the new world going forward lacks a true enemy as it had in the USSR and as such many nations, most notably in Europe have sought to cut their apron strings from the US and forge out on their own.

Kicking and screaming the United States under both parties want to keep things as they were. The progressives want those Allies to love us as they seemed to do pre 1989 when they had no choice facing the USSR and its 3 million man war machine. And the Republicans true need to have an enemy at all costs to retain power.

Neither can see that change has occurred in the world. They both are looking at foreign policy thru the backward prism of time.