Europeans greet Obama's nomination speech with enthusiasm
Published Friday August 29th, 2008
BERLIN - Europeans on Friday greeted Barack Obama's rousing acceptance of the U.S. Democratic nomination as a strong performance that boosted his campaign and went beyond a mere show to offer a clearer picture of what he might do as president.
Polls from Germany - where Obama drew an audience of some 200,000 for a speech in Berlin last month - and elsewhere in Europe have shown him to be an overwhelming favourite over Republican rival John McCain amid wide discontent with the current U.S. president, George W. Bush.
Still, some have questioned whether a captivating style and promises of change are enough to win the presidency.
"In Denver, it wasn't just about change any more, but about cash, too," German weekly Der Spiegel wrote in its online edition. "The defining line running through his nomination speech was not wishes, but reality."
"Barack Obama is in the process of developing from a redeemer into a politician," it added. "That is a great disappointment for many of his supporters, but it is necessary."
Although many European television channels aired the speech live in the early hours of Friday morning - most people didn't stay up to see it. One who did was the German government's co-ordinator on U.S. relations, Karsten Voigt.
"I think it has strengthened his position in the campaign - whether this now can be balanced by an equally strong performance of McCain waits to be seen," Voigt said in a telephone interview.
Voigt said Obama "was especially strong in the fields of domestic policy" - such as the economy, health care, energy and education. On foreign policy, "he was trying to establish his role against a public perception that McCain might be stronger in a crisis situation."
In his blog, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt described Obama's performance as "American rhetoric about the American dream in best American style - but also a way to give a certain amount of substance to politics. And to draw up the border lines to John McCain."
In Frankfurt, Germany, 79-year-old retiree Friedrich Seitel said after seeing Obama that "he would be the right future president as long as he does what he promises."
"I like his idea to relieve the middle class by reducing taxes," he said. "And a retreat in Iraq will be necessary because it is not good for a country to spent too much money on war."
Still, the plaudits for Obama's style were undiminished.
Vittorio Zucconi, a correspondent Italy's left-leaning La Repubblica daily, described Obama's acceptance speech as "the best of Obama - as one would say about a music compilation."
"In all these months that I've followed him and listened to him, I had never seen him so lively, in such good form, and especially - and that's the novelty - so aggressive," Zucconi wrote on the newspaper's website. "He has shown his claws."
German student Anne Stahringer, 24, said Obama "is a visionary and would certainly be a sort of fresh breeze on Capitol Hill."
"I think German people would vote in favour of him and hopefully America will do so," she said. "Since Hillary (Rodham Clinton) announced her support, he has a true chance of winning the election."
Voigt said this year's presidential campaign as a whole - and not just Obama's rise - challenged "the prejudice in Europe that Americans are less interested in politics ... and the parties are not very different."
"This time the populace have really a choice - the candidates represent different ideas and experiences," he said. "There is an enormous engagement and support for the candidates, and Europeans should try to learn from it."
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