by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
Norway stunned the world by awarding the coveted Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama, who was nominated for the honor after being in office less than two weeks. But the award is in keeping with Europeans’ behavior over these first nine months of Obama’s presidency. They’ve gone gaga over the guy.<\/p>\n
In return, however, their crush is not quite being reciprocated.<\/p>\n
Obama did his best to avoid British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the recent G-20 summit. The tabloids in Britain still whine about the tawdry gifts the cool Obama gave Brown when he came to Washington earlier this year.<\/p>\n
French President Nicholas Sarkozy \u2014 ogled by the global press as a rock star before Obama replaced him \u2014 seems schizophrenic in his attitude toward the president \u2014 fawning over him one minute, exasperated with him the next. The press there calls the syndrome Sarkozy’s “Obama complex.”<\/p>\n
At the U.N., he was so frustrated by Obama’s soaring but empty rhetoric that he finally blurted out about Iran and North Korea: “President Obama dreams of a world without weapons . . . but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite.”<\/p>\n
Sometimes this European exasperation goes deeper than just unrequited love. Obama promised the Russians he would not deploy a planned anti-missile system in the Czech Republic and Poland. Whether intended or not, that decision was seen as a snub. And it scared many in Eastern Europe \u2014 given their long, unhappy history with Russia.<\/p>\n
Obama earlier this year gave enthusiastic pep talks to our NATO allies, urging them to send more troops to Afghanistan. Yet right now he is wavering on the critical question of doing the same himself.<\/p>\n
Europe was said to have hated George W. Bush. But in President Bush’s second term, friendly governments in Britain, France, Germany and Italy could count on American support in any crisis that might threaten the wealthy but defenseless European Union. Now, with Obama’s real interests unclear, these countries are, like spurned teenage lovers, acting out their worries in neurotic fashion.<\/p>\n
Sometimes love-struck Europe gets sassy and slights its indifferent heartthrob. Obama flew into Copenhagen for an hour, thought he could charm the infatuated Europeans who dominate the International Olympic Committee to give Chicago the 2016 Games, and then blithely jetted out \u2014 only to learn on his way home that his hometown bid had been rejected.<\/p>\n
At other times, as with the Nobel Peace Prize, a gushing and desperate Europe gives him almost anything to gain his affection and attention. Now that Obama has been granted the award, the Norwegians are babbling about “vision” and “hope” rather than real achievement as the basis for their decision.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the tiny country hopes that if it gives Obama an award for utopian pacifism, then he most surely will have to act like a European utopian pacifist rather than commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation in history.<\/p>\n
A number of things are going on here. America is changing. Millions of Americans now trace their heritages not to Europe, but to Africa, Asia or Latin America. For a generation, the schools have emphasized all sorts of non-Western ethnic studies courses instead of the old core curriculum based on Western civilization.<\/p>\n
Obama, with both a Kenyan and Muslim paternity, reflects that trend. For example, one of the first things Obama \u2014 the son of a British colonial subject \u2014 did as president was remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and send it back to Britain.<\/p>\n
China, India and Japan are also collectively larger than Europe and may one day be wealthier as well. We owe most of our debt to non-Europeans, buy our energy from non-Europeans and seem to send our soldiers increasingly far from Europe. Obama’s spurning of Europe reflects the new geopolitics.<\/p>\n
Obama poses as the multilateralist, defers to the United Nations and has criticized ossified Cold War-era alliances. Judging by his actions and words, Obama views American habitual protection of an allied but military defenseless Europe as, well, kind of pass\u00e9.<\/p>\n
So get a grip, Europe. Stop it with both the silly fits and the lavish presents. You see, Obama’s America is just not that into you.<\/p>\n
\u00a92009 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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And thus President Obama last week named a bipartisan commission to find ways to address our national debt. Such a Periclean response might sound sincere and worthwhile. But it comes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "March 2010"","block_context":{"text":"March 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/march-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1877,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-populist-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":1},"title":"Our Populist President?","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Obama and Populism I could believe President Obama\u2019s postmortem take that the same populist sentiment that propelled Scott Brown to office also earlier sent him to the White House \u2014 if we saw fresh liberal Democrats winning seats in places like Alabama against entrenched\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2010"","block_context":{"text":"January 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/january-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1511,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-new-take-on-partisanship\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":2},"title":"Obama’s New Take on Partisanship","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One of President Obama\u2019s strangest complaints is that there are too many in Congress who act, well, like former senator Obama. In his recent speech on the question of comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama once again blasted Republican political opportunism that opposes his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3119,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-first-person-presidency\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":3},"title":"The First-Person Presidency","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Here are a few excerpts from President Obama\u2019s speech on Sunday night about the killing of Osama bin Laden. \u201cTonight, I can report . . . And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta . . . I was briefed on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Foreign Policy"","block_context":{"text":"Foreign Policy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/foreign-policy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2451,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-verses-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":4},"title":"Obama Verses Obama","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas President Barack Obama is more exasperated than ever as polls dip, critics multiply, and none of his massive borrowing seems to jump start a stalled economy. He seems bewildered that House Republicans did not immediately agree to his tax increases proposals, and confused over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "First Term Policies"","block_context":{"text":"First Term Policies","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/first-term-policies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8241,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-derangement-syndrome-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2204,"position":5},"title":"Obama Derangement Syndrome?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO- The Corner Some, like Ezra Klein, have posited that Rudy Giuliani\u2019s suggestion that Obama may not be patriotic and Scott Walker\u2019s hesitation to assert that Obama is a Christian illustrate a sort of unhinged Obama Derangement Syndrome. 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