Anyone Loved In Europe This Much Must Be Bad For America

Please do remember that the last time this many Germans were so taken and enamored with a single politician it turned out to be none other than this guy: (bad voter judgment unparalleled in history)

So I'm not exactly enthralled with the fact that a US presidential candidate is stirring up similar emotions from Americans and Germans alike, the parallels are downright scary. The only difference is Obama's 1/3rd black, otherwise it's Deja Vu all over again.

Berliners are dishing out 250.000 Euros of their own money to provide "Obama the Fraud "campaign fodder and photo ops....................... what suckers. They fell hard for this act once before so why not again? They also love this guy more than anyone in recent memory, another seemingly strange bedfellow per se:

Their judgment in men sure seems to leave a lot to be desired to the average American one would think. Hasselhoff hasn't really been popular in America for one could say decades, so what does that say about the timeliness of their crushes on American males?

Anticipation, Griping Increases Before Obama Speech in Berlin

| Germany | Deutsche Welle | 23.07.2008: "The 'Obama show,' as one newspaper calls it, is set to take Berlin by storm on Thursday, July 24. But a small minority is questioning whether the Democratic candidate can live up to the hype -- or justify the costs.

In the build-up to what is probably the most anticipated American campaign speech ever held on foreign soil, one of Berlin's main city magazines offered its readership cut-out American flags to wave at Barack Obama's planned address.

The presumed Democratic nominee plans to arrive in the German capital on Thursday morning. Not much of his agenda for the day has been made public, but he is set to speak at Berlin's Victory Column -- formally the main site of the Love Parade -- at 7PM local time."

Those who want to hear Obama live have been told to start arriving three hours earlier. Berlin authorities say that as many as a million people could attend. Four TV stations are broadcasting the entire speech, and the rest are scrambling to secure prime locations at the site.

Only around 13,000 Americans live in Berlin. So what is motivating Berliners and Germans in general to treat a Democratic presidential hopeful to such a royal welcome?

He's not Bush

Obama met with Israeli's and Palestinians on Wednesday ahead of his Berlin trip

In comparison to US elections, German political campaigns are short, stolid and sober affairs that focus as much on party platforms as personalities. In the wake of World War II, many Germans view charismatic leadership with mistrust.

That, however, doesn't mean that ordinary Germans or the media are immune to the aura of a politician who knows how to work a crowd.

The current edition of Germany's most serious news weekly, Der Spiegel, features Obama on its cover with the only vaguely ironic headline "Germany Meets the Superstar" -- a play on the title of the German version of the TV show "American Idol."

And many German bloggers do seem to idolize the Illinois senator.| continued

But what about we Americans?

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