Why are so many Europeans so hooked on Barack Obama? According to this op-ed article from Portugal’s leading business daily, Diario Economico, ‘Europe sees Barack Obama as the antithesis of George W. Bush. And confronted with the state of the world, this is something that makes all the difference. Seen from the Old Continent, Obama symbolizes the American spirit in the European heart. He may not represent the full complexity of America, but he certainly represents the America that exists in the Europe’s wildest imagination.’
By Carlos Marques de Almeida
Translated By Brandi Miller
January 25, 2007
Portugal – Diario Economico – Original Article (Portuguese)
Definitively, Barack Obama is the candidate of Europe. The fact that he’s Black, can carry on good social discourse and has cultivated a casual and sophisticated image makes Obama the perfect portrait of an American liberal. But whether or not the senator is a product of talk shows and is the very definition of a style that epitomizes the ideal of “change,” Europe sees Barack Obama as the antithesis of George W. Bush. And confronted with the state of the world, this is something that makes all the difference. Seen from the Old Continent, Obama symbolizes the American spirit in the European heart. Barack Obama may not represent the full complexity of America, but he certainly represents the America that exists in the Europe’s wildest imagination.
In a nation still marked by the American “cultural wars” of the 1960s, the issues of race, religion and gender continue to influence the political discourse. Perhaps in a surprising way, Barack Obama has sought to define himself as the candidate of a new era, a universe apart from radical politics and ideology. In aspiring to a new era, Obama approaches Ronald Reagan, not in the policies he proposes, but certainly in terms of presence and inspiring oratory. Like the Reagan coalition, which succeeded in uniting fiscal and social conservatives nationally, if Obama achieves a fully-fledged “grand social coalition” around the Democratic Party, perhaps Obama’s dream will become Obama’s revolution.
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