Obama is not JFK

The daily Les Echos comments on US President Barack Obama's visit to Europe: "In Europe no one - or practically no one - doubts that this visit has at least one symbolic goal: to portray a less unilateral America, one more open to the world than under George W. Bush. ... That goal seems all the easier to attain in Europe in that Obama's election is widely interpreted here as demonstrating America's ability to renew and commit itself on the world stage, above all through institutions like the [International Monetary Fund] IMF and Nato which were both founded after the Second World War. Expectations in Europe are so great that some people are comparing Obama's visit to that of President Kennedy to West Berlin in 1963. ... But will Obama declare himself a European, as Kennedy declared himself a citizen of Berlin? Most likely not. Today's battle lines are of an entirely different nature than the Cold War division of the world into two blocs."

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