Nowak says he was the first person to tell Chancellor Angela Merkel that Obama would be the next U.S. president. "It's like he was out of an American movie," Nowak told me. "And we Berliners are raised to expect Americans [like Obama] to arrive in times of crisis."
But what sells in Berlin won't necessarily sell in the American heartland. Yes, Obama appeared presidential. His speech was fluid, safe and filled with soaring rhetoric. Even as he acknowledged America's imperfections, he also reasserted its greatness and its self-imposed role as a light unto nations. By all accounts, his speech was well received. But could too much enthusiasm from those weak, latte-sipping Euros present a problem stateside?
According to German Marshall Fund Senior Director Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, for all their familiarity with American culture, Germans are fundamentally at odds with mainstream U.S. views. "Basically, Germans like everything about the U.S. that Middle America revolts against. They love elitist America, Harvard, the East Coast, the cultured and the mannered. They don't understand the swagger and the cutting of the underbrush. Obama is not only the anti-Bush, he has the liberal, elitist feel that Germans like."
Particularly among American conservatives, there's been a lot of overblown talk these days about German anti-Americanism. They point to a 2008 Pew Survey that found 34% of Germans don't like Americans at all or in part, and 61% see the U.S. as heading for a landing on the ash heap of history. But Germany's case of Obamamania suggests another story line: that Germans are desperate to like America again and that the Democratic candidate has given them an excuse to come out of the closet. Or maybe he reminds them of their desire to have someone heroic of their own.
But appreciating American idealism and rejoicing in the exercise of American power are two different things. And although he may have sounded like it Thursday, Obama is not running for president of the world. If elected, he'll likely toe lines that Europeans would want him to leap across. Do we really believe his German fans know the details of Obama's stance on the death penalty, the 2nd Amendment, or recognize his growing comfort in discussing the use of military power?
Temporarily blinded by his rock-star appeal, Germans are forgetting that, as leader of a nation so culturally distinct from their own, Obama will, by definition, not reflect their interests in the long term. In Europe, just as at home, Obama has raised expectations so high that he's nearly condemned to disappoint.
And more important, does his drop-dead charisma there portend a ballot-box bust here?
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grodriguez@latimescolumnists.com
