Obama Abroad: Not Just Another Rock Star

[babylonsister]

Obama Abroad: Not Just Another Rock Star
By Madison Powers, CQ Guest Columnist

snip//

What then was the point of a large public speech in the heart of Europe where likely voters are few?

Arguably, the main thrust of the speech was to provide reassurance. The task was to demonstrate to Europeans that things in America would once again be okay, that the United States would not drift mindlessly into foreign policy blunders and take callow and obsequious politicians such as Tony Blair along for the ride.

What attracts many Europeans, especially the young, to Obama goes well beyond his cool demeanor or rock star persona. Obama reassures a Europe grown increasingly nervous about the improvident exercises of American power. It is because of his early and informed opposition to the Iraq War that Obama offers hope not only to Americans but to those who understand that what happens in America does not stay in America.

What Obama represents for many Europeans is hope that the era of avoidable and extraordinarily bad judgment will soon be over, and the speech was pitched in tones meant to amplify the campaign words already well-known among European observers of all things American. The hugely positive response Obama received was thus anything but shallow rock star worship of the sort that many American commentators mistakenly assumed it to be.

Beneath the soaring rhetoric of how we can change the world, it was not a particularly new or certainly not a grand new utopian vision that Obama was peddling. By contrast, it was Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld and the Neo-cons who were making the case for a radically new world order. Obama’s pitch seems to be for a return to sanity in foreign policy and a commitment to making globally consequential decisions that are grounded firmly in reality. No more fantasies about citizens of an occupied nation greeting us as liberators.

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002929043

[LiberalFighter]

1. Was this just for the sake of Europeans or also give a chance

for Americans living abroad to meet him and vote for him in November?

[babylonsister]

2. I'd say probably a combo of both. This was a grand introduction

by Obama. The naysayers claim he messed up, but 200,000+ people attracted to his message can't be wrong. Of course, the naysayers will continue to place a negative spin on anything he does.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Personally, I think there were many American citizens that attended the event

because it would be possibly be their only chance to see him before the election.

[babylonsister]

5. If I lived close enough, I'd go! Yes, he is beloved by Americans in

Europe for the most part. Let's all hope their votes count this November.

[Pirate Smile]

6. They were registering voters at the rally - Americans Abroad. I haven't seen anything re how many

new voters they got registered.

[sourmilk]

4. "Obama reassures a Europe grown increasingly nervous..."

The last eight years have been like a drunken frat boy on a murderous road-trip. I have heard of "an iron fist in a velvet glove," but WTF has happened to the GLOVE???