End of the Honeymoon: Germans Increasingly Disillusioned with Obama

Der Spiegel ^ | 06/13/2012 | An Analysis by Bruce Stokes

[Olog-hai]

In July 2008, in a speech at the base of the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten park, before tens of thousands of deliriously adoring onlookers, then US presidential candidate Barack Obama promised a renewal of America's stature in the world. After his election that November, Germans, other Europeans and many people around the world embraced Obama in large part because he was not George W. Bush. Reversing a half-decade of profound anti-Americanism, support for the new US president and America soared to what has now proven to be unsustainable levels, especially in Germany. Obama's honeymoon with the German people is not over. But now, as he seeks re-election, the first indications of friction in the relationship are emerging.

In a new global survey released on Wednesday, approval of President Barack Obama's policies has declined significantly since he first took office. Overall confidence in Obama and attitudes toward the US have slipped modestly as a consequence. By several measures some of the greatest slippage has occurred in Germany, especially with regard to America's image and Obama's foreign policies. After more than three years in office, Germans are disappointed in the US president's unilateralism; his use of force, particularly drone strikes; his inaction with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian situation and his lack of effort in curbing climate change. …

Germans also don't see America as an economic superpower. In 2008, only 30 percent of Germans named China as the world's leading economic player. Now 62 percent do, while only 13 percent say the U.S. plays that role. No other Europeans judge American economic prowess so harshly.

This decline in support for the United States is closely linked to Germans' critical views of Obama's handling of particular international concerns. …

[Roadgeek]

With G-d all things are possible, thus I am still filled with hope for our world :-)

Kindest regards,
Roadgeek

[Savage Beast]

I suppose you’re right, but I’d feel a lot better if He didn’t have such a sense of humor.

[driftless2]

The Germans are unhappy because Obama has not turned out to be nearly the total commie they want him to be. Not that Obama isn’t trying. It’s just that there’s this thing called Congress and the Supreme Court that keep him from implementing the leftist dictatorship he would dearly like to install. Hang on Germans, if Fearless Leader gets re-elected, we’ll be closer to that commie utopia you cherish.

[KarlInOhio]

disillusioned

What a perfect term with its implication that support for him was based on an illusion from the start. It's like basing an economy on a game of three card monte. Meanwhile we were yelling from the start "it's the left card. He always picks the left card."

[driftless2]

"fascination"

Europeans are far more utopian leftist in their political and social worldview than Americans. They think they can create that utopia on earth without the twin evils (in their minds) of military prowess and free-market capitalism. In short, they have a deluded, twisted view of how the world works. And many of them still harbor a totalitarian streak. Which is why people in Europe can be tossed in the clink for speaking their minds about Islamism.

[driftless2]

"isn't left wing enough"

You got it.

[driftless2]

I meant to say that many of them harbor a fascist streak rather than totalitarian.

[Roadgeek]

Sometimes I have had the same thought, but then I always recall the life of Job, who reaped a bountiful harvest for remaining true to Him through all trials and tribulations.

Supposedly, we will have to remain just as steadfast as Job did in his time.

[Campion]

The people who did this are not our dear old West Germans.

?? That's just what a highly watered-down, Bundeswehr-ized German military band looks and sounds like.

If you want to see the real thing, go to about the 14:00 mark in this video. The East Germans maintained all of the old Prussian military traditions.

Hitler didn't invent any of that; he just used it to great effect. Most of it dates to the Napoleonic wars or before.

[KosmicKitty]

I don’t know who the blond haired chick behind BO on the float is suppose to represent, but what the heck is she grabbing on to??

LMAO!!

[BenLurkin]

That is exactly what she is looking at.

[dfwgator]

Germans 50 years of age and older are now far less pro-American (49 percent) than Germans ages 18 to 29 (61 percent)."

A lot of those 50 and older were the Baader-Meinhof types.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Because of their hatred for Bush they would be blinded by a snake oil salesman...

[nathanbedford]

Jim, as you know, Europe's antipathy towards George Bush bordered on the pathological and nowhere was that visceral reaction more deeply felt than in Germany. Much of the pro-Obama sentiment in Germany can be understood as anti-Bush sentiment, the idea that Obama opposed Bush on virtually every issue.

We see America as a Shining City on the Hill standing athwart the on march of world socialism with a stop sign. Germans see themselves, because of their unique history, disqualified from maintaining unilateral positions on the world stage and are therefore reduced to multilateralism. They are by the force of their own history obliged to look for a multinational solutions. This melds very nicely with a socialist bent already abroad in Europe and it becomes very easy to see George Bush as the devil incarnate who maintains a robust foreign policy in which America acts as a world policeman and opposes world government, not to mention communism and Islam.

To the degree that Germany, and the rest of Europe to some degree, by virtue of their weak military, history, culture, and new left philosophy are committed to multinationalism, they must oppose America. Obama promised to undo this robust Ronald Reagan foreign policy which George Bush had carried out.

To the degree that the war in Iraq has been a mixed experience, the Germans feel vindicated in every criticism they ever made about George Bush. They believe that America's economic problems are almost entirely due to money squandered in Iraq and to a lesser extent in Afghanistan. No amount of insistence that his wars cost much less than the Germans think relative to our debt has any power to disabuse them of this fixed notion.

Finally, race must enter into this equation. Germans tend to see African-Americans as exotic. Strangely, they retain a degree of anti-Semitism but entertain relatively no racism against Africans as far as I can determine. One sees this phenomenon manifested in their attitude about Barack Obama, perhaps fashioned by their fascination with Nelson Mandela, and further evidenced by their affinity toward south Africa where they send class trips, make exchanges and where they frequently holiday.

[Oatka]

Lame ducks are easily recognizable every where they roam.

Great pic accompanies that, but I wonder if she also could be thinking of "Daffy"?

[Oatka]

Lame ducks are easily recognizable every where they roam.

Great pic accompanies that, but I wonder if she also could be thinking of "Daffy"?

[Brad from Tennessee]

[Thing is, they’ll welcome that. May not sound like it at first, but the people at the Bundeswehr and BND are busy beavers with plans galore.]

We can learn from this. Their military establishment has always had good ideas and we have never hesitated to borrow them.

[Steve Van Doorn]

There might be more to this photo then just looking at an idiot. Take a look at this. Germany is starting to take Islam seriously:

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/german-authorities-make-move-salafist-muslims-17-states

[Olog-hai]

They have been taking Islam seriously, at least since the Multikulturhaus in Neu-Ulm was closed by the authorities in 2005.

[Crucial]

I’m, uh, sorry to hear that. Why is this important?