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dpaAs America's first black president, Barack Obama electrified an entire nation. But now that the nation is in crisis, he seems unable to connect with the people. He wanted to change America and restore its reputation in the world. But now his opponents are dictating the country's political course.

President George W. Bush has canceled an event in the famously neutral country Switzerland because of expected protests to his presence there. Bush was supposed to give the keynote address at a Jewish group's charity gala on Feb. 12 in Geneva. Leftist groups had planned to protest the visit, according to news agencies. But several human rights groups had also filed criminal complaints against Bush, demanding that he be taken into custody if he stepped on Swiss soil and investigated for allegations of ordering torture.

In the days after the Republican US presidential contender Senator John McCain chose then Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, the Democratic party hierarchy started to panic. In the short period between her convention speech and her Katie Couric interviews, Palin looked to many like an inspired choice. Then US senator Barack Obama had become exasperated by the propensity of the party establishment to panic at every turn of the election. Just then, a picture of him staring straight ahead and pointing at the camera went viral. On top, it read: “Everyone chill the f*ck out.” Below, it...

Passion Fades for Barack Obama, The Perfect Poster Boy Like many others, I fell for Barack Obama somewhere in the middle of Bush's second term, writes Gill Hornby. By Gill Hornby 11 Dec 2009 I've probably been in denial for a few months now. Turning a blind eye, trying not to overreact to the little things, even though all the signs were there. But now it might just be time to face up to it. Another political love affair is over. Another one has let me down. President Obama's acceptance speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony wasn't the last straw,...

Germans don't want KSM or the other turds to die.

Europe melts for Michelle By: Nia-Malika Henderson and Jonathan Martin April 4, 2009 06:33 PM EST He was cool and understated, the slightest bit aloof. She choked up as she told young minority girls to follow their dreams. He gave speeches. She gave hugs. And while Barack Obama came to Europe as the American president, Michelle Obama came as something entirely different – almost an American tourist, but the kind even jaded Europeans could love, big-hearted, curious, sophisticated yet accessible. They simply melted for Michelle. Of course, the Europeans were eager to gush over a First Couple not named Bush....

STRASBOURG, France – Welcomed with thunderous cheers, President Barack Obama pledged on Friday to repair damaged relations with Europe, saying the world came together following the 2001 terrorist attacks but then "we got sidetracked by Iraq." "We must be honest with ourselves," Obama said. "In recent years, we've allowed our alliance to drift." The new U.S. president said that despite the bitter feelings that were generated by Iraq, the United States and its allies must stand together because "al-Qaida is still a threat." At a town-hall style gathering before a French and German audience, Obama also encouraged a skeptical Europe...

As a result of the historic election of Barack Obama in the U.S., other countries have started wondering whether a similar occurrence would be possible in their nations — none more so than the Obama-worshiping United Kingdom. Its press, race industry, and political classes are all aflutter about whether or not it would be possible for a minority to become prime minister of the country. Many doubt that a minority could make it to 10 Downing Street any time soon.....

Over the past two weeks the outpouring of British newspaper, radio, and television punditry has been staggering in volume. Staggering in variety? No. One theme that seems to obsess British journalists has been a grim, humorless regurgitation of the most negative aspects of American history. My very left-wing friends may have complained that they lived in a “police state” under the present administration, but the fact that President Bush has not declared martial law, or that police and army did not deploy to massacre the crowds in Grant Park on election night, puts paid to any notion that the United...

Nobody is happier about the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States than the folks at the United Nations. It is as if they finally discovered kryptonite, and Superman will soon be disabled. The U.N. is an uncomplicated place. Every sick, unsatiated tyrant, European has-been, or miserable wretch brainwashed about the Great Satan wants to take America down – unless they are able to immigrate of course. Their modus operandi? The United Nations. The beauty of it, from the perspective of the majority, is that Americans are paying for their own demise. Americans are even convinced...

Reaction in Britain to Barack Obama’s victory has been predictable, given that the country leads Europe and much of the world in knee-jerk anti-Americanism — which, more often than not, is actually anti-Republicanism — and is also consumed with its own version of white guilt (post-colonial in our case), and entranced by notions of multiculturalism. Commentators have obsessed over the racial aspects of the election, and have expended so much energy gloating over the demise of George Bush that you’d think that it was he, and not McCain, whom Obama had defeated. But a few pundits have managed to control...

Hamburg, Germany ---------------------- Milan,Italy ---------------------- Geneva, Switzerland ---------------------- Washington DC, USA ---------------------- Obama,Japan ---------------------- Rome,Italy ---------------------- Paris, France ---------------------- Jakarta, Indonesia ---------------------- Honk Kong, China ----------------------

PARIS – Barack Obama's election as America's first black president unleashed a renewed love for the United States after years of dwindling goodwill, and many said Wednesday that U.S. voters had blazed a trail that minorities elsewhere could follow. People across Africa stayed up all night or woke before dawn to watch U.S. history being made, while the president of Kenya — where Obama's father was born — declared a public holiday. In Indonesia, where Obama lived as child, hundreds of students at his former elementary school erupted in cheers when he was declared winner and poured into the courtyard...

VIENNA, Austria -- She was a stranger, and she kissed me. Just for being an American. It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning, a few hours after compatriots clamoring for change swept Barack Obama to his historic victory. I was on the phone, and the 20-something Austrian woman seated in front of me overheard me speaking English. Without a word, she turned, pecked me on the cheek and stepped off at the next stop. Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans. For longtime U.S. expatriates like me - someone...

CNN) -- Europe's expectations of a Barack Obama presidency are vibrant, vast and probably incapable of fulfillment by any president, let alone one who will come to office in the middle of a worldwide economic crisis and with huge, unfinished business in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no doubting the buzz and the optimism that the election victory of an African-American candidate has brought. Most in Europe are instinctively America's friends and, after the unilateralism of the Bush years, they want to have something to love about America again. Obama's arrival, they hope and believe, will give them that opportunity....

In the week leading up to the presidential election in the United States, the British media have been ramping up their disapproval of Sarah Palin, their adoration of Barack Obama, and their collective contempt for the American electorate. In the Guardian of October 28, George Monbiot trashes everything he can conjure up and concludes America is a vast wasteland of uneducated nincompoops. (Watch out, George: your long diatribe, which has already attracted the ire even of lefty bloggers, may backfire and cause millions of swing voters to go for McCain, as Ohioans did in 2004 when the Guardian mocked the...

Story Highlights Giant effigy of Sarah Palin blown up at fireworks display in southern England Caricature destroyed as part of traditional celebrations in town of Battle Event believed to date back to 1646 BATTLE, England (CNN) -- Townsfolk in England have delivered their explosive verdict on Sarah Palin, stuffing a giant effigy of the U.S. Republican vice presidential nominee with fireworks and blowing her up to raucous cheers. The unusual display was the climax of an annual bonfire celebration Saturday in the southern town of Battle, where political figures are a favorite target of a local tradition that sees a...

UNITED NATIONS -- There are no "Obama 2008" buttons, banners or T-shirts visible here at U.N. headquarters, but it might be difficult to find a sliver of territory in the United States more enthusiastic over the prospect of the Illinois senator winning the White House. An informal survey of more than two dozen U.N. staff members and foreign delegates showed that the overwhelming majority would prefer that Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency, saying they think that the Democrat would usher in a new agenda of multilateralism after an era marked by Republican disdain for the world body. Obama supporters...

<p>UNITED NATIONS -- There are no "Obama 2008" buttons, banners or T-shirts visible here at U.N. headquarters, but it might be difficult to find a sliver of territory in the United States more enthusiastic over the prospect of the Illinois senator winning the White House.</p>

It's hardly a secret that Barack Obama is Europe's favorite U.S. presidential candidate. But a new poll shows that in France, just 1 percent of people think John McCain should win the White House. By contrast, 78 percent back Obama, while 5 percent don't want either to win. According to Reuters, the poll found the five largest Europeans countries were unanimously behind Obama in the U.S. race.

PARIS (Reuters) - Just one percent of French people want Republican candidate John McCain to win the U.S. presidential election, and western Europeans overwhelmingly favor his rival Barack Obama, an opinion poll showed on Friday. McCain's campaign derided Obama as a celebrity akin to Paris Hilton after the Democratic nominee toured Europe and gave a speech to a huge crowd in Berlin this summer. The Harris Interactive survey suggested the Republican would have struggled to draw such a large audience there if he had tried to.

There are all sorts of reasons for hoping that Barack Hussein Obama will be the next president of the United States. He seems highly intelligent. He has an air of courtesy and sincerity. Unlike the current occupant of the White House, he has no difficulty in orally extemporising a series of grammatical English sentences, each containing a main verb. Unlike his opponent, he visibly incarnates change and hope, at a time when America desperately needs both.

Gallup Polls conducted in 70 countries from May to September 2008 reveal widespread international support for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain in the U.S. presidential election. Among these nations, representing nearly half of the world's population, 30% of citizens say they would personally rather see Obama elected president of the United States, compared with just 8% who say the same about McCain. At the same time, 62% of world citizens surveyed did not have an opinion. World citizens are more divided over whether the outcome of the U.S. election makes a difference to their country, with...

LONDON – The mayor of London, a member of the British political party that is a traditional ally of U.S. Republicans, says Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama "visibly incarnates change and hope, at a time when America desperately needs both." In an article for Tuesday's edition of The Daily Telegraph newspaper, London Mayor Boris Johnson of the center-right Conservative Party was blunt in his assessment of President Bush's legacy and how an Obama presidency would break from it. Johnson's endorsement of the Democratic candidate came after McCain declared in a radio address Saturday that "socialist leaders" in Europe admire Obama....

For Conservatives, the choice is obvious: it has to be Barack Obama By Daniel Hannan Last Updated: 12:01am BST 19/10/2008 Sometimes it's worth stating the obvious. The election of a mixed-race president who opposed Iraq from the beginning would substantially restore America's reputation in the world. (snip) True, Obama would be a decorative rather than a functional president, but what is the problem with that (snip) Which former president does Obama cite, by contrast? Ronald Reagan, arguably the greatest occupant of his office since Lincoln. That's the clincher.

It is for the American people to choose the next president of the United States. Anyone who is not a citizen should proffer advice on the question only with the greatest humility and tact. The price paid in money or in blood for the decisions of the president falls mainly, even if not exclusively, on Americans. And the nuances of political discussion, so important in selecting leaders, are often hard for outsiders to grasp. Yet it would be naive to think that readers of a British newspaper have no stake in the outcome of the contest between Barack Obama and...

A former head of MI5 today describes the response to the September 11 2001 attacks on the US as a "huge overreaction" and says the invasion of Iraq influenced young men in Britain who turned to terrorism. In an interview with the Guardian, Stella Rimington calls al-Qaida's attack on the US "another terrorist incident" but not qualitatively different from any others. "That's not how it struck me. I suppose I'd lived with terrorist events for a good part of my working life and this was as far as I was concerned another one," she says. In common with Dame Eliza...

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - Sen. Barack Obama is the preferred U.S. presidential candidate in all 22 nations polled for the BBC World Service by the University of Maryland and Globescan. “We did this same poll in 2004 and most of the countries went for Sen. Kerry. We felt there would be a more even split this time. We felt people would see improvements with either candidate. We were surprised to see that people thought problems would improve with Sen. Obama,” Dr. Stephen Kull told The Final Call“ The Bush policies have affected worldwide opinion. (John) McCain is seen as a continuation...

Netherlands blogger Michael van der Galien reports that a group of young Dutch Socialists will be flying here to campaign for Barack Obama: … I received an e-mail I found quite interesting. The Jonge Socialisten asked me whether I would like to travel to America with them shortly before the U.S. elections in order to do ‘research.’ Now, before readers will think this would be a great opportunity for me to visit the country I write about so frequently, the trip had a specific partisan purpose despite it being described as ‘research’: They would travel to the United States to...

The entire world is, apparently, full of whiny no-good commie liberals. It's true. This is the only logical conclusion, the only way you can possibly parse the piles of (largely unscientific, but still pretty damn convincing) numbers and data and full-blown emotional consciousness now pouring in from all over the world, pumping our little presidential election full of all sorts of cosmic meaning and profundity and oh-my-God-can-it-be-true. Check that: Maybe it's not the only way to parse it. But if you're a hard-core McCainite and/or are under some sort of unfortunate, chemically-induced delusion that Sarah Palin is just exactly the...

Barack Obama's proclamation last July to being a "citizen of the world" was affirmed Monday as a new poll -- taken before the August conventions -- showed that in 16 out of 17 countries surveyed he was the overwhelming choice to be the next president of the United States. The lone country to prefer a John McCain presidency: the U.S. The Reader's Digest magazine poll, released Monday, asked 17,000 people in 17 countries, including the U.S., whom they would like to see elected president. The poll also found that, counter to Obama's claims that America's reputation abroad is taking a...

“That is the safe sex message of all time. Use a condom or become a Republican!” In the light of this pig-ignorant comment coming out of Russell Brand, a so-called comedian at the recent MTV awards, some of you might be wondering if his opinion is shared by others in the UK. Considering the incredibly biased coverage of the whole election by outlets such as the BBC and the Guardian, it is no wonder I encounter such ignorance about Gov. Palin. ...

Bernard Henry LEVY, a wealthy leftist who claimed to support the socialist candidates in the former french presidential elections,who has strong ties with the sector of medias and of edition ,in a recent article in the french weekly "Le Point" of the 18 September 2008 clearly accuses of racism the "little whitey" who will not vote OBSSAMA. For LEVY's eyes O. is the one who will unite communities in USA... B.H.LEVY is considered by many french from all parties or opinions as a show-business multiculturalist fake intellectual...Another good supporter for Dr.O./Mr.Hyde

A model wears a short dress with a portrait of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, a creation by French designer Jean-Charles ...

The American election campaign has made life better for those of us living here and identified as non-enemies of President Bush or, even worse, one of the "neo-cons" David Cameron went all the way to Islamabad to denounce. It is not that our British friends have fallen in love with George Bush, or adopted a more tolerant attitude towards those of us who think the world might be a more dangerous place if America were to retreat into reliance on the United Nations to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. No, it is that Brits with any interest in America,...

PARIS — The French have always found American elections amusing, in a horror movie sort of way. They grumpily regard the American president as in some unfortunate sense also their own, but they see the campaign through their own cultural lens.They value sophistication above almost anything, and so they regard their own hyperactive president, Nicolas Sarkozy, with his messy romantic life and model-singer wife, as “Sarko the American.”But this year has been difficult for the French. Mr. Sarkozy has generally supported American foreign policy and has praised the United States’ openness and entrepreneurial verve. And the sudden emergence of Senator...

Obama strikes me as a modern Chamberlain, praising his (oh-so-transient) “peace with honor.” McCain, however, comes across as “peace when we’re done kicking you ass and not one moment sooner.” And since this was ostensibly a foreign policy debate, I give the win to McCain. Oh, and one other thing — Obama is still talking as I write this. But he’s spending his last answer angling for the European vote, which does nothing but reinforce my point....

A British government minister attacked Republican US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as "horrendous" at the Labour Party conference on Saturday. The outburst from Communities Secretary Hazel Blears threatens to undermine Prime Minister Gordon Brown's determination for the British government to maintain a neutral position in the US presidential election. Speaking at a fringe meeting of the centre-left party during its annual party conference in Manchester, Blears said Palin was capitalising on people's disillusionment with regular politics. "I just think there is so much anti-politics -- not just in this country but around the world," Blears said. "One of the reasons...

The well-known WII museum of Normandy, France, authorized within its walls a conference organized by the extremists who pretend 911 was an inside job. Held on September 16, 2008, the conference features several commentators, from the one attributing the 911 attacks to the neocons to the one saying it was the jews. The "Memorial de Caen" was built to commemorate the millions of Allies who landed in France in 1944 to liberate the country.

Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has attacked US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as "horrendous". Ms Blears, the Communities Secretary, suggested that the Republican running mate of John McCain had merely capitalised on people's distaste for regular politics. Her comments appeared at odds with strenuous efforts by Downing Street to maintain neutrality on the US presidential elections. They also risk poisoning relations with the Republicans, who are still neck-and-neck with Democratic hopeful Barack Obama little more than a month before polling day. Ms Blears was speaking to a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Manchester when she remarked that politics...

The lamestream media told you:Francoise Hollande, the head of France’s Socialist Party, has endorsed Barack Obama for U.S. president, and promised “to work for the senator’s victory,” in the words of the Associated Press in an unbylined article. ... cont.

LONDON — Are American voters susceptible to blackmail? Ever since Sarah Palin lifted John McCain's campaign, it is becoming increasingly clear that America will be branded racist if Europe does not wake up on November 5 to find that Barack Obama has been elected. Here is what Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian had to say last week: "If [the election] is deemed to have been about race — that Obama was rejected because of his colour — the world's verdict will be harsh." His view is that the anti-Americanism that has demonized President Bush will be as nothing to the...

One of the many, many imprecise aspects of daily journalism is estimating a crowd size -- especially when the gathering is large and sprawling. In such cases, reporters learn early not to hazard a guess of their own but to rely on officialdom. But sometimes, in another sign of the vagaries of pinning down a count at an event for which tickets haven't been allotted, the figures from the local authorities vary. Such was the case Wednesday as John McCain and Sarah Palin wrapped up the road tour that took them to several states since the Republican National Convention ended...

What Europeans are Saying about Sarah Palin Europeans have greeted the news of Sarah Palin’s nomination for Vice President of the United States with a predictable mixture of anger, frustration, resentment and resignation. After more than a year of uncritically praising Barack Obama as a supernatural figure destined by fate to solve all of the world’s problems, European elites are suddenly coming to terms with the unwelcome possibility that the junior senator from Illinois might just be another human being after all. European commentary on Sarah Palin has ranged from ridicule, to ridicule, to more ridicule, to reluctant acknowledgment that...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would triumph over President Dmitry Medvedev if presidential polls were held this weekend, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday. A separate survey showed that if Russians were allowed to vote in U.S. polls, they would prefer Democrat Barack Obama to Republican John McCain. The polls follow Russia's intervention in Georgia last month to crush Tbilisi's attempt to retake a pro-Moscow separatist region of South Ossetia.

THE HAGUE, 12/09/08 - Popular support for US presidential candidate Barack Obama is higher in the Netherlands than anywhere else in Europe, according to the Transatlantic Trends 2008 survey published yesterday. At the same time relatively many Dutch also view his opponent, John McCain, favourably. Sixty-nine percent of Europeans view Obama favourably, compared with 26 percent who view McCain favourably. The highest favourability ratings for Obama were found in the Netherlands (85%), France (85%) and Germany (83%). The highest favourability ratings for McCain were found in Portugal (35%), the Netherlands (33%), Spain (33%), and the United Kingdom (33%). Transatlantic Trends...

Gordon Brown has triggered a potential row with John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, after apparently backing Barack Obama - breaking convention not to get involved in foreign elections. The Prime Minister heaped praise on Mr Obama and the Democrats in a magazine article, saying they were "generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times." Dealing with economic problems is the crucial battleground in the US elections and Mr Brown's comments were interpreted as backing the Democrat candidate. The Prime Minister's office and the British Embassy in Washington were last night involved in an embarrassing behind-the-scenes operation to...

World wants Obama as president: poll Posted Tue Sep 9, 2008 10:50pm AEST US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said. All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Senator Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain. In 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins. More than 22,000 people were questioned by...

The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: a sinking feeling in the stomach. It's a kind of physical pessimism which says: "It's happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more." In my head, I'm not as anxious for Barack Obama's chances as I was for John Kerry's in 2004 or Al Gore's in 2000. He is a better candidate than both put together, and all the empirical evidence says this year favours Democrats more than any since 1976. But still,...

LONDON - Most people across the world would prefer Democrat Barack Obama to win the US presidential election over his Republican rival John McCain, a new poll spanning 22 countries showed Tuesday. The BBC World Service survey found the most common view in all nations polled was that Obama -- who staged a euphoric European tour two months ago that included a speech to 200,000 fans in Berlin -- should win in November. An average of 46 percent of all those questioned thought US relations with the rest of the world would improve if Obama took office, compared to just...