Maybe it’s me, but I’m still trying to understand the logic of
the Obama campaign’s European tour. Don’t get me wrong, his
obligatory trip to the Middle East and Afghanistan in his role as a
U.S. senator was justified, if only by the presence of so many of
his brave countrymen. But the reasoning behind “Barry Does Europe”
escapes me.
It has been suggested that Barack Obama went overseas in order
to morph into “presidential” material; that his mere presence on
foreign shores would somehow be transformative. That would be like
me jetting off to Never-Never-Land in order to become Peter Pan; an
excursion that too many Obama backers already seem to have taken.
After all, his lost boys have been playing White House make-believe
— designing his presidential seal and getting his transition team
ready for the big move — for months now.
But his supporters loved the tour and the press went gaga as
you’d expect, given that they got to spend a few days in Paris,
France, rather than Crawford, Texas; a place they’ve been forced to
endure for the last seven years. And in the minds of all
Obamamaniacs, that’s symbolic of the difference between George W.
Bush and their hero. Here’s how the unbiased folks at the AP put
it:
It’s not only Obama’s youth, eloquence and energy that
have stolen hearts across the Atlantic. For Europeans, there have
always been two Americas: one of cynicism, big business and
bullying aggression, another of freedom, fairness and
nothing-is-impossible dynamism. If President Bush has been seen as
the embodiment of that first America, Obama has raised expectations
of a chance for the nation to redeem itself in the role that — at
various times through history — Europe has loved, respected and
relied upon.
I hate to break it to the AP, but America’s dynamism arose from her
embrace of businesses, big and small; her idea of fairness was born
of her cynicism toward the tyranny of her European parents; and her
aggression against that tyranny has brought freedom to those who,
if the press is to be believed, are still ungrateful for it.
But, just as most Europeans have formed their opinion of the
U.S. by being force-fed the New York/Los Angeles slants of CNN and
the New York Times, we should take with a grain of salt
the reports that emanate from those international organs of
liberalism that are in communion with their fellow travelers in
Paris and Berlin.
We are gleefully told of a poll, for instance, in which Obama was the
presidential choice of 52% of a whopping 6,256 Europeans and
Russians; as if that should somehow matter to a people whose
ancestors fled the intrigue and “foreign entanglements” of Europe
to build a nation where success was to be the reward for hard work
and not simply bestowed by entitlement.
Not surprisingly, this has resulted in a precipitous drop in polling across the pond
where Americans can see that, just like them, European voters have
defied their own pollsters by electing center-right leaders like
Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi. This trend
has flummoxed the liberal media on both sides of the Atlantic who
bewail the fact that actual voting rights must be afforded to all
citizens, even those who cling bitterly to guns and God.
THIS, THEN, IS at the crux of Obama’s domestic polling plunge. It
may be that many of the coveted Independent voters are put off by a
candidate who needs to display his foreign policy bona fides by
illusion rather than from any concrete experience, and seeks
approval at home via the opinions of foreigners. In any fair and
balanced press coverage, this would be known as “being out of
touch” with American voters.
Add to this that his incoherent explanations of how the surge in Iraq
may or may not be working, but that he would still vote against it,
are not very comforting in turbulent times. But don’t expect the
press — which has scolded President Bush mercilessly throughout
his presidency for never admitting that he was wrong — to hold his
feet to the fire over this or anything else, as it is clearly on
board with whatever issues from his sainted mouth.
Also, the lingering concerns over Obama’s American flag-pin flap
and the infamous photo of his apparent reluctance to reverence our
National Anthem were not helped by his reference to himself as a
“citizen of the world.” The majority of Americans will always be
suspicious of any candidate who sides with those who consider us a
bunch of rubes and hicks. It’s akin to the old saying: I can call
my wife whatever I want, but woe betide anyone else who does
it.
You would think that liberal Democrats and the kingmakers of the
worldwide press would have learned this lesson with John Kerry and
his boast that foreign leaders were backing his presidential bid.
Luckily for us, they have not. Obama recently said:
It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they
all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then
we go over to Europe and all we can say is “merci
beaucoup.”
Thanks to you too, Senator, and many happy returns on Election
Day.
