The Foreign Service Journal, September 2008

swing in public opinion in 24 countries surveyed. The drop is largely due to dis- approval of President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war with Iraq and other policies. The Social Democrats, who under then-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder refused to go into Iraq, still proclaim themselves the peace party, the ones who kept Germans out of the quag- mire in Iraq. But there is also considerable resentment of Pres. Bush because of his rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, his administration’s use of torture and the treatment of prisoners at Guantana- mo Bay. Nor is former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s quip about “Old Europe” forgotten. These issues still dominate the German view of the U.S. today. In addition, U.S. policy toward Iran is being watched very closely. Bush’s political saber-rattling about World War III last November attracted much more wide- spread attention in Germany than it did in the U.S. and still reverberates. Following indications that Israel might go ahead with a military attack against Tehran, fear in Germany has increased that Washington might be involved in another war before this president leaves office. Although relations and, especially, the style of com- munication between the two countries have significant- ly improved since Angela Merkel became chancellor in 2005, the view of Bush among the general public has hardly changed. His policy toward North Korea and his half-hearted attempts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process have reassured some in government with- out altering the German public’s negative assessment of him. But they — along with many members of the Merkel government — are clearly just waiting for the Bush era to end. Tellingly, during the president’s last visit to Germany there were not even demonstrations against him, a clear sign that even the protesters con- sider their favorite enemy a lame duck no longer worth the trouble. Despite their negative views of the U.S., Germans have always liked American popular culture — from Bruce Springsteen to the rapper 50 Cent, from “Sex in the City” to American designers. “We want a change that again lets us say: ‘We love America,’” says Social Demo- crat foreign policy expert Hans- Ulrich Klose. Nobody could make that easier than Barack Obama. That is the change Germans believe in. Ready for a Fresh Start Obama stands for freshness, untainted by the political bick- ering of the past, and offers a vision of a united America. His life story, with a father from Kenya and a youth spent in Indonesia and Hawaii, is international and a departure from the biographies of presidents past. It is inspiring and intriguing to many Germans that he is African- American, which for them symbolizes in itself a new, better America. That biography also seems to vindicate the German ideal of multiculturalism, which has come under much public criticism recently. “Obama is the incarnation of Multi-Kulti,” says Stelzenmüller. She sees a “pathologi- cal similarity” between the two countries at the root of the German infatuation with Obama. “Both countries are very idealistic and want to be good, and for that we want to be loved by the rest of the world.” And while Americans “fall in love with their own utopia during this election, Germans fall for the U.S. utopia, as well, because it is so powerful.” Obama’s commitment to change and hope is a perfect projection screen for German yearning for what they perceive as a better America. Germans liked the charis- ma and iconic stature of John F. Kennedy, and they view Obama as his heir. References to him as “the Black Kennedy” abound. For many Germans, says Social Democrat foreign policy expert Karsten Voigt, Obama is “a mixture of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy.” No wonder, as Voigt says, that “Germany is Obama country.” Some Social Democrats have even taken the unprecedented step of endorsing Obama. Kurt Beck, their chairman, has said that “an Obama presidency would be good for the whole world.” Even Frank- Walter Steinmeier, the tough German foreign minister, closed a speech at Harvard by chanting, “Yes, we can!” After almost four years of a grand coalition, Chancellor Merkel’s no-nonsense, matter-of-fact leader- F O C U S 38 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 8 John McCain gets substantially less coverage than his opponent, but he is seen as a realist in foreign policy who is supportive of the transatlantic alliance.