[Even the 'Polizei' were coming in close -- to take snapshots of the guy.]
Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland explains the significance of Barach Obama for our European allies:
...[T]here is not a serving politician in the world who is now more popular than him, even though at the moment he's only ever been elected to the junior Senate seat from Illinois. It's a pretty remarkable state of affairs.
But he does -- what he embodies is and he becomes an outlet for is that degree of yearning I think you're hearing here, which is a lot of people across Europe, misjudged as being anti-American during the Bush years, really were not.
As Christine Ockrent says, they were people who actually believe in the American dream and have wanted somebody who can allow that belief to come, almost a valve, an outlet for that pro-Americanism. They've not been able to feel that in the Bush years.
And Barack Obama comes along with his improbable journey, as he puts it, his remarkable life story, what he embodies, and therefore says, "It's OK. You can be pro-American again. You can believe in America again."
