Henry Kamen on the Europeans' enthusiasm for Obama

Writing in the Spanish paper El Mundo, British historian Henry Kamen expresses amazement that many European critics of the US are suddenly so enthusiastic about US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama: "Just a month before the elections in the US we should ask why there is a tendency in certain elements of the European press to present the senator of Illinios, Barack Obama, as the new saviour of the West. The president of the Spanish government has said he hopes Obama wins. But it would be interesting to know why he - a dyed in the wool anti-American - all of a sudden gets excited about the candidates for the American elections. Why are so many Europeans who were previously anti-American now pinning their hopes on Obama? ... In his very brief political career, Obama has not achieved anything significant at all, and perhaps that is the reason people like him. ... This article - written from a state in which voting preferences are almost equal for the two major candidates - suggests that Obama probably is not the saviour he is made out to be in the European (and of course in the Spanish) press. In practice, there is virtually no difference between Obama and McCain."

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