‘Obama’s Victory Would Revive America’s Image in the Eyes of Ordinary People’: From Cotidianul of Romania

In this first Romanian translation from WORLDMEETS.US about Barack Obama, Adrian Deoanca of Romania’s Cotidianul newspaper gives his reckoning of why Europeans are so taken by the young senator.

Deoanca writes in part:

“Barack Obama was greeted like a superstar in Berlin. He wasn’t acclaimed for his indisputable talent at oratory, but because he’s the antithesis of the much-derided current president. The senator is much like a European, while Bush is perceived as the embodiment of the lack of high culture and barbarism which is often - and too often wrongly - attributed to America and Americans. Unlike Bush, Obama seems to oppose a patriotism that verges on nationalism, which frightens a Europe that wants to be post-national; and he appears to advocate a middle path between a pragmatic liberalism and an attenuated form of socialism that is closest to the European spirit.”

Deoanca goes on to explain how bad it has gotten under President Bush, and he outlines an ineffable truth about Europe and the United States that many Americans may be unaware of:

“Anti-Americanism has always been a topic of discussion in Western Europe, even a common one, especially among the intelligentsia. But the reign of George W. Bush gave a patina of legitimacy to European prejudices and brought into line the attitudes of intellectuals, politicians and the masses against the United States, and made ridiculing Bush a habit in cafes and eateries. In the Bush era, the American century plumbed its lowest depths and anti-Americanism became the new global religion.”

By Adrian Deoanca

Translated By Mircea Ionescu

July 27, 2008

Romania - Cotidianul - Original Article (Romanian)

Barack Obama was greeted like a superstar in Berlin. He wasn’t acclaimed for his indisputable talent at oratory, but because he’s the antithesis of the much-derided current president. The senator is much like a European, while Bush is perceived as the embodiment of the lack of high culture and barbarism which is often - and too often wrongly - attributed to America and Americans. Unlike Bush, Obama seems to oppose a patriotism that verges on nationalism, which frightens a Europe that wants to be post-national; and he appears to advocate a middle path between a pragmatic liberalism and an attenuated form of socialism that is closest to the European spirit.

Anti-Americanism has always been a topic of discussion in Western Europe, even a common one, especially among the intelligentsia. But the reign of George W. Bush gave a patina of legitimacy to European prejudices and brought into line the attitudes of intellectuals, politicians and the masses against the United States, and made ridiculing Bush a habit in cafes and eateries. In the Bush era, the American century plumbed its lowest depths and anti-Americanism became the new global religion.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.