Political People: Barack Über Alles; Germans adore Obama

By Stone Martindale Jan 7, 2008, 16:57 GMT

Illinois Senator and Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama during a campaign rally held at Stevens High School in Claremont New Hampshire USA 7 January 2008. Voter polls show Senator Obama with a strong lead over his fellow candidate, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, in the state of New Hampshire where the first in the nation primary is held on 8 January 2008. EPA/CJ GUNTHER

Drawing comparisons to John F. Kennedy, the German people have gone dotty for American presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

His popularity is due to many reasons, notably his opposition to the Iraq War, which has always been unpopular in Germany.

President John F. Kennedy is still admired in Germany and particularly in Berlin - and the German press.  The Berliner Morgenpost  ran with a headline, "The New Kennedy." The tabloid Bild went with, "This Black American Has Become the New Kennedy!"

An editorial in the Frankfurter Rundschau went one historic president better with a headline that read simply: "Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama," adding that "hope and optimism" are "the source of the nation's strength."

"There are similarities between JFK's time and today," said Karsten Rossow, 49, of Berlin, who was visiting the small Kennedy Museum by the Brandenburg Gate on a dark, snowy afternoon Sunday with his wife. "People are ready for the politics of change."

His wife, Änne Rossow, added that "after so much disappointment" - she was referring to the Bush administration - "one seizes on these liberal ideals."

More than any other European country, Germans are wary of US Politics because after World War II, the Americans never left.  The US is an occupier and protector with a large military base and presence there.

During the Cold War, West Germany was dependent on the United States, nowhere more so than in West Berlin. President Kennedy is remembered here for the support that he gave the city as the Berlin Wall was built during his presidency in 1961, crystallized in his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

The International Herald Tribune notes that Obama's race "also plays well here, according to Uwe Andersen, a professor of political science at Ruhr University in Bochum: 'In Germany, there is great sympathy first for Native Americans and second for black Americans.' "