Why the European Crowds Cheered Obama

To properly analyze the reason for the reception that Barack Obama received yesterday in Europe, one needs only to look at which lines caused the crowds to cheer and compare them with those that fell flat.

When Sen. Obama mentioned that he comes to Germany as a citizen of the United States, despite the crowd being made up of 200,000 supposedly enthused supporters, you would have been able to hear a pin drop. Accolades were showered upon him, however, when he concluded that line with “and as a citizen of the world.”

The same thing repeated itself when he talked about his mother, “who came from the heartland of America.” The silence was so pronounced it was as if the crowd was holding in its boos. But when he followed that by mentioning his father “who herded goats in Kenya” the near boos immediately turned in to accolades.

The message was clear. The more the candidate seemed to distance himself from America (at least as far as the European crowds were concerned, and as the Senator should have known his words would be construed, and probably did know this), the more they cheered. And the more the candidate tried to connect himself to America, the more those parts were met with disdain.

If a candidate for President of France came to Chicago and addressed the crowds at the Sears Tower, receiving deafening silence when stating “I come to you as a citizen of France,” but was met with fanfare upon concluding “and as a great friend of America,” would anyone in France even care? In truth, some would. They would point to the silence he received at the mention of his country and this would far outweigh any other aspect of speech.

Should we feel any differently? Should we not question why Senator Obama saw fit to go there and give that speech in the first place?

The answer to the second question is clear. Senator Obama is more interested in appeasement and in pleasing all people in all parts of the world, people who are generally oblivious to, and have little interest in, the threats faced by America, not realizing that many of our issues affect them as well. Many of the people who Sen. Obama addressed are disdainful and envious of the United States and would like to see themselves in America’s position, something they naively believe will come about economically if America is brought down a notch, a happening that in reality would drag them down as well. And on foreign issues, as they have no concept of the threats posed to America, they naively blame United States for the problems facing the West instead of blaming the perpetrators.

Four things were clear from yesterday’s stunt in Germany:

1) The crowds that came out had clear disdain for America.

2) Sen. Obama is more interested in currying the favor of those who don’t understand the needs of America than he is about taking care of those needs in ways that really work for Americans.

3) We now know what he would do if elected. His modus operandi any situation would be to appease those who are upset as opposed to doing what needs to be done. Such a path has always failed. Economically, it means listening to the special interest groups that scream the loudest and who generally have the most myopic plans. Internationally it means kowtowing to, and thereby emboldening, America’s enemies.

4) If we vote for him, knowing all of the above, we are playing Russian roulette with the future of the nation.