If we could put aside our political and partisan biases (..I know, I know, its difficult to do), we should objectively look as to the "reasons" why 200,000 Germans, in the hot July heat, would stand and listen to a guy speaking in English, representing a country that has been at political odds with them for almost a decade.

Why would that be; what makes these folks anxious to see world policies change; why do European polls favor so much a fervert desire to see the American administration take a different course ?

We can dig in our heels and state.."Who cares about the Germans, the French, the Brits, the Italians; the Spaniards..", but we should know better.

I'm not at all surprised that Barack Obama would receive a warm reception in Europe. By and large Western Europeans are politically to the left of the United States, generally speaking.

I notice the one time when Obama started calling on Germany to contribute a little more to help the United States, i.e. help rebuild Iraq and send more troops to Afghanistan his audience got really, really quiet. One might extrapolate that Obama the idealistic candidate is more popular with Germans than an Obama the president who might actually expect the Germans to do something useful to assist the United States.

But on the other hand, the not-so-helpful Schröder government was tossed out in favor of the much-friendlier-to-the-US Merkle government. So maybe things might work out after all.

I was waiting for you to bring this up, CG. I would have if you hadn't. But I have a slightly different slant on it.

First of all, Obama is not the President of the United States. Should he be giving a speech saying, in effect, we should tear down the walls that divide us as 'peaceful' nations?

As a candidate, has he any need to explain his platform to non-voters in a foreign country--or is he being presumptuous--assuming that no one in her/his right mind would vote for McCain and so he can speak as a president before the election?

Somehow, that just doesn't seem 'right' to me.

For a little different slant: Suppose that he was explaining his platform to foreign countries so that the American voters could get a sense of how the rest of the world would react to him in the event that he does get elected President. I think that this is something that we should be aware of and hence a good thing. It follows that the other candidates should follow in his footsteps so we can better gauge how our European friends would react to them and the international aspects of their platforms.

US politics affects the World, so of course they are interested in the man. As for Europeans being more "left" than Americans, that's only relatively speaking, because the US has less of an emphasis on social justice and as become saturated with corporatism.

Most Europeans would be more willing to help in Afghanistan than in Iraq, which is seen as a mess that the US created for itself.

It would be interesting to see what the same audience would make of McCain.

Compared to McCain's recent trip to Columbia (who of course is not President of the United States) I would say Obama dazzled his audience.

The irony is...that Gerald Baker isn't from the United States either, but we must listen to him while he ridicules Barak Obama.

See Ray's A Child Appears In The Wilderness Piece:

http://tinyurl.com/55d5th

McCain went to Iraq and Afghanistan before the election so what's the difference.

Check this out : http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20080726/Obama/

Why?

It is not just Europe but as far away as australia that are hoping that Obama will win. Sure we are a liitle left of both parties in the USA. Is this not a reason why the USA should move a little left to the democrats.Surely this is better to going it alone as the last extreme right wing government in the developed world

USA government mistakes still effect the rest of the world.

...as does our largess during times of calamity.