Old World Thinks He's the Messiah

Barack Obama's trip to Europe this month might not do much for his electoral chances at home. But the Old World doesn't care, writes Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens; when the candidate arrives he "can expect to be greeted as a messiah." Europeans have been starstruck by Obama, and they seem to think that this November's election is little more than a formality.

At home, the election hinges on domestic matters—the economy, gas prices, health care—but Europeans imagine that the vote is a referendum on American foreign policy. They might be in for a rude awakening come 2009, when a President Obama still puts American interest s first. "The leader of what is still the world’s most powerful nation," writes Stephens, "will never think like a woolly postmodern European." (More Barack Obama stories.)