Continental Europe today is torn: How can it reconcile its ecstatic Obama-mania with the president’s resistance to creating a global institution to oversee financial markets and his favor for bigger deficit-funded stimulus packages to boost consumption?
Francois Sergent of France’s Liberation writes in part:
“It’s the paradox of Obama. Not since Kennedy has an American president been so popular in Europe. Never has the model of the country held most responsible for a global economic crisis, a country over which he presides over and embodies, been so decried. … Despite everything that’s happened, Obama says he wants to ‘lead the world.’ In London, the ‘world’ waits with curiosity and sympathy, but not with complacency.”
Here are a few other tidbits:
First, after gushing over her on day one, a harsh verdict from Britain’s fashionistas on Michelle Obama’s choice of clothing.:
The Daily Mail, U.K.: First Lady Fashion Sense ‘Falters’ on G20 Day Two
And more about Michelle Obama – this time her ‘extraordinary’ physical contact with Queen Elizabeth – with copious jumbo-sized photos:
The Daily Mail, U.K.: ‘Extraordinary Scenes’ as Queen and Michelle
Put Arms Around One Another
Finally – three and a half minutes of footage of the taking of the G20 ‘family photo’
By François Sergent
Translated By L. McKenzie Zeiss
April 1, 2009
France – Liberation – Original Article (French)
It’s the paradox of Obama. Not since Kennedy has an American president been so popular in Europe. Never has the model of the country held most responsible for a global economic crisis, a country over which he presides over and embodies, been so decried. Yet during the electoral campaign and since his installation in the White House, Obama has shown his difference. More than his European counterparts, he has made the crisis the absolute priority of his presidency. In magnitude and ambition, his stimulus plan eclipses the limited and disorganized measures taken individually by European leaders.
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