Enjoying the Obama show

Barack Obama's European visit looked like an election rally - billboards, souvenirs and shirts bore his image in Berlin, the suburbs of Paris cheered and London welcomed him politely. Why did it feel as though Europe was electing him?

Obamafest

As many as 200,000 Berliners gathered by the Victory Column to see and listen to the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. The crowd enthusiastically cheered and shouted "Obama for President!" The moment for his speech was also very carefully chosen - superb timing and flattering light helped him make his case. 

American television stations transmitted the Berlin rally live - it was early afternoon on the East Coast and morning on the West Coast. Republican candidate John McCain's team waited in vain for errors, gaffes or slips of the tongue from Obama. Unfortunately for them, it all went smoothly and easily. The whole show was perfectly staged.

Why Europe?

The fact that Obama brought his election campaign to Europe was a carefully weighed tactic. During Bush's two terms, America's influence in Europe has significantly waned. NATO members have criticized the White House's foreign policy with increasing frequency, while former allies in the War on Terror have withdrawn their support. Iraq, which was to have been America's most spectacular success as the "world's policeman," has instead become a quagmire.

Obama's staff knows very well that within the US there is significant disappointment that Europe takes America less into account, not to mention frustration at the fact that President Bush largely is ridiculed and reviled here. The Democrats put on a show in Berlin in the hope that European enthusiasm would prove a magnet, drawing part of the Republican-leaning electorate: those who traditionally favor a strong Transatlantic alliance, who want an American presence on the old continent, and who will vote for the candidate that will rebuild America's lost position in Europe and elsewhere in the world. 

On the other hand, the Democrats are also counting that Obama's success in Europe will bear fruit in the support of America's hundreds of thousands of French, German, English and other European immigrants.

Anyone but Bush

Europe's distaste for Bush is, quite frankly, wind in the Democrats' sails. Were the American elections to take place on the old continent, the candidate best able to distance himself from Bush and the American policies of the last eight years would win.

And Obama has turned out to be an excellent Anti-Bush candidate. He comes across as friendly, relaxed and outgoing. Most importantly, during his visit he evinced no trace of Bush's conceit; his tone and posture spoke of something entirely different. He did not assume a moralizing tone, he did not lecture and he did not build the myth of American greatness. It is this tone and bearing that impressed Europe.

Impractical, yet electrifying

But - and this is a credible and oft-heard criticism - it was hard to find anything tangible in the content of his speech. It was suave and polished, but full of platitudes. It was more like the rhetoric of a preacher or an activist than that of a president.

What did we learn from Obama's European visit? We found out that he wants to create a good and beautiful world, free and without violence, without nuclear weapons and without the scourge of AIDS. In Obama's world there is no room for torture, violation of freedom of expression or for social exclusion.

If such words were easily put into policy, we would all live happily ever after. They aren't, however, and Obama will have a tough time making good on his promises if elected. But for now at least we can enjoy the show.

Joanna Wóycicka is the former head of the foreign section of the Życie Warszawy and Życie newspapers and the former head of the foreign department at the Polish Press Agency (PAP).j.woycicka@hotmail.com