Posted on 10/26/2004 11:55:36 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
PARIS One would think it was their leader being elected - and many Europeans believe it is, in a way. In a tremendous show of interest unseen in previous U.S. presidential campaigns, Europeans on both sides of the Channel have been riveted by the coming American vote, obsessing about the future of the United States as if it were their own.
.....Judging from opinion polls, media reports and conversation on this side of the Atlantic, the overwhelming sentiment on what would be bad for Europe is another four years with President George W. Bush. In Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, Europeans appear to be united by an overwhelming antipathy toward Bush.
"He has the ability to provoke incredible animosity," said Alain Frachon, a senior editor at Le Monde, one of several French newspapers running extensive coverage of the American campaign. ....
..."There's just something about the president that grates on the foreign viewer - it just doesn't play well here. I cannot remember an issue that has ever aroused such intense interest."
European media are sending correspondents all over the United States in an effort to delve into the American psyche.
"We want to understand why so many people are still on Bush's side; it's a kind of mystery to us," said Peter Frey, Berlin bureau chief for ZDF television in Germany. "We are asking the American people, 'Why are you voting for Bush?' We want to understand why he has this support."....
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
This is not a parody:
French Town Quietly Cheers On a Son: Kerry *** ST.-BRIAC-SUR-MER, France — Imagine the scene here a year from now if this genteel village enters U.S. history.
On Aug. 15, 2005, President John F. Kerry returns with great fanfare to St.-Briac-sur-Mer, where his parents met and where he spent childhood vacations in a Breton coastal landscape immortalized by Renoir.
Escorted by his cousin, Mayor Brice Lalonde — a former candidate for the French presidency [Green Party] — Kerry leads the celebration of the 61st anniversary of the Allied liberation of the village from the Nazis.
Speaking fluent French, Kerry greets crowds filling narrow lanes and a town plaza festooned with flags of both nations. Kerry announces that he has chosen this community of 2,000, a cherished refuge of his globe-trotting family since 1923, to symbolize the rapprochement of the United States and France — indeed, Europe — after years of transatlantic tension. .....***
I lived in France for 2 years and South America for 3 years. I can tell you this: the striving and ambitious admire and respect Americans. The true intellectuals (bernard henri levy) and many creative types admire america. But anti-americanism has replaced (or rather joined) anti-semitism as a crutch for the pedagogues and peasants, who just want certainty and mediocrity and their stale bread and mediocre wine. Remember, America was founded by people who couldn't stand the place anymore. They hate us because we escaped.
Damn, that Dubya is fine! *lol*
Bump!
Tell the French to read one of their own: "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville. It's a brilliant and insightful exposition of the American mind and spirit.
Recommended reading in every American high school should be "Tocqueville on American Character" by Michael Ledeen.
The Euroweenie equivalent of penis envy.
And they couldn't or wouldn't follow.
Dubya's trying to bring it to them but too many of their leaders are threatened by independent, industrious citizens.
Steve Forbes is a big fan of Alexis de Tocqueville!
They should zip up their pants and get busy fixing their own problems.
Who cares, let em' fuss. It's Europe. They will cease to exist in this century. IslamoEurostan is well on its way.
Enrage a Euroweenie - Vote for Bush.
We aren't eighth-grade girls here. We don't give a damn if they like us. We expect they will respect us for having the courage of conviction to do what we believe is right despite the juvenile junior-high quality name calling and backbiting coming from the self-proclaimed European cultural elite. And if they don't respect us, we'll still sleep just fine at night, thank you.
To these high forehead, pointy nosed multicultural European poindexters that are trying to diagnose the American psyche like it's some kind of disease I say let us decide who we want to trust with our future. If you want to shape your world the way you see fit, start by tending to your own goat herd.
I want to know when the EU is going to get ONE vote in the U.N. like the U.S. gets.
Well, for starters you can contemplate the only other option for us at this time.
The Brie & Dom Perignon Crowd vs a vs The Ribs & Beer Crowd. Its no contest.
That's as far as I got. Don't these maroons understand that repeatedly publishing articles showing the Eurotrash hate Bush isn't helping Kerry?
I think the American lib press thinks "But *I* care about what Euros think of Bush, why don't these stupid Little People bow down to their intellectual superiors???"
I read it to Rambette and said, "How about I get on a plane and show up at European Space Agency HQ with a big cowboy hat on and say, 'I'm here to give all of y'all the correct view on how to use your satellites! We get to tell you what to do, right?' Think that'll go over well?"
She didn't think it would.
The European concept of the arrogant American is not so much jealousy as it is projection.
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