Der Spigiel has an article today titled American Idol in Germany.
http://www.spiegel.de/...
The article discusses the coming of Obama on Thursday and the excitement caused by this visit.
But, it also speaks to the gloom that is prevailing in the whole world. A kind of mild depression of the soul and the politicians today who don't seem to be able to speak to the people and provide the leadership so yearning in populations all over the world.
Bush is just one symptom of a wider problem faced in the world today. While we suffered through 8 years of bullyboy style leadership, the world has also found themselves listing through a mild depressive slump caused by weak or nonexistent leadership from their politicians.
This Sunday marks the anniversary when 4 years ago an unknown Illinois state senator running for the office of US Senator spoke to the US. The networks did not carry the speech. But, to those who were at the convention and those watching on cable remember even now, where they sat, what they were doing, what emotions ran through them, when this unknown stepped on the stage and spoke.
l7 minutes that shook the world.
Or at least a country and mostly democrats.
And a few days before that anniversary this now known Illinois politician, Barack Obama, will step to a podium, possibly, and speak to the world from the Victory Column in Germany.
And Germany is in love.
just as they fell in love once before and now have a shrine still for the man they first fell in love with:
His eternal spot in Berlin is in a museum on Pariser Platz, directly across the square from the Brandenburg Gate. The museum, called "The Kennedys," represents the ultimate in a politician's achievements -- complete and utter hero worship. It is filled with attractive photographs, inspiring quotes and magnificence. The film constantly on screen there depicts former US President John F. Kennedy's appearance in Berlin in June, 1963, including the parade given in his honor and his speech in front of the Schöneberg Town Hall, where he famously said: "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner").
But, even in a country that is still in love with Kennedy, nothing has caused Berlin to be as excited as what is coming on Thursday:
But at least he is coming. He will be in Berlin this Thursday, when Germans will hail him as a magician with the ability to transform a gloomy world into a brighter place. Never before has there been so much excitement in Germany over the visit of a presumed US presidential candidate. Obama may be running for the White House, but judging by the commotion, one would think that he had already advanced two steps further and were the president of the world.
As exciting as the thoughth of a President Obama and what it means to our country and the people, he will be facing so much more then even Obama knows he will be facing.
The hopes and dreams of America is placed upon this man's shoulders and we dream of seeing someone who will be a great president and great democrat just like FDR or Kennedy was.
However, it is not just America that will be looking to this man in Jan. 2009:
It is time for leadership. And only one man inspires the kind of confidence that would enable him to assume this leadership: Barack Obama. Germans, in particular, are pinning their hopes on this man. Whereas just 10 percent favor the Republican candidate John McCain, fully 76 percent consider Barack Obama the better candidate.
"Obama has created a mood that makes it possible to have faith in politics," said Norbert Röttgen, the parliamentary leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Röttgen spoke enthusiastically about Obama, but his enthusiasm was also an indirect criticism of top German politicians, of men and women who seem to be everything but Obama, or at least everything but the image that many Germans have formed of him.
It seems the whole world is looking to this man to save them. To give them hope and fill them with dreams. For many, they look at their politicians and see people who are not Obama.
However, the ending of the article runs into the same problem most in the US runs into with the Traditional media.
They tend to not really understand Obama. They want to put him in the left/right box and the hard core labels of yesterday.
this is where the article loses it power. Because they have taken their cues from our media in trying to describe Obama.
It seems to me that what is Obama's power in running against others is also what vexes us in articles written about him. Politicians like McCain view him from the conventional wisdom prism that our media does and therefore ends up defeating himself, like the media does, because they fail in understanding the essence of the man and the politician. McCain, et.al run against Obama as they would a garden variety politician.
As disappointing as the ending is in lifting it's final analysis from our traditonal media storyline, it is still worth taking the time to read this 4 page article, however.