Tuesday, September 29, 2009

President Obama's Standing in Old Europe versus New Europe

Senator Lugar gave an interesting speech before the Atlantic Council during the other day. I believe it was a questioner (rather than Senator Lugar) who said that Pres. Obama's approval rating in Germany and France is 60%, in Poland, 11%.
Postscript: The actual figures are apparently closer to 92% and 55%, respectively. See the second comment to this post.

Interesting.

I wonder: Do Europe's Small Powers sense that Europe's Great Powers and the Greatest Power of All are willing (once again?) to sacrifice Eastern Europe to keep peace with the Great Bear?

Then I wonder to myself: Are revanchist sentiments surfacing in my heart? (My family suffered because of Stalin.) Or do I have a justifiable fear of Russian authoritarianism and imperialism? I confess I think the second is the better explanation.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Senator Lugar is probably the wisest man in the U.S. Senate. It is a shame that his campaign for President never caught fire. I suspect he is too thoughtful and insufficiently vain -- too modest, too self-effacing -- to win the Presidency.

Unknown said...

Corrected numbers(?): 55% approval in Poland, 92% in Germany: "Obama's lowest European approval rating, 55 %, was in Poland, the poll showed. Germany awarded him a 92 % score. The poll wasn't conducted in Lithuania or its Baltic neighbors. Russia yesterday hailed the demise of the Bush plan for the missile shield, which it had called a threat to Russian security and violation of a pledge not to establish U.S. military bases in eastern Europe." http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_news/?doc=3872