The irrational exuberance that is the Obamagasm has crossed the Atlantic:
PARIS: According to Samuel Solvit, president of France’s support committee for Barack Obama, the French have not been this excited about America since they shipped over the Statue of Liberty in 1885.
Obamania has gripped most of Europe. But the enthusiasm is particularly striking in France. This is where the disenchantment with U.S. foreign policy under the Bush administration has been the most vocal. And this is where the Continent’s largest community of African immigrants and their descendants live.
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[A]s the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warned Friday, European enthusiasts have elevated the senator to a role he will find hard to fulfill - “a savior of mankind, a sort of political Messiah of the early 21st century.”
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“With Obama, a certain idea of America is back: that of a generous society where equality of opportunity is not an empty promise. Hope and change, key words of his campaign, reinforce this rediscovered ideal, which resonates as much inside the country as beyond.”
In no other segment of France’s population does this ideal inspire more than among minorities. One in 10 of the nation’s inhabitants is of Arab or African origin.
Kama Des-Gachons, a 28-year-old Frenchwoman, was one of about 600 young men and women flocking to a panel discussion in Paris on Tuesday about the “Obama Effect in France.” Her eyes lit up when she spoke about Obama. Not because he is a Democrat or because he opposed to the war in Iraq. But because his father was an African immigrant, like hers.
“He makes me dream,” said Des-Gachons, whose parents came to France from Mali. “I even bought a T-shirt with the American flag. America is the country where you can make it.”
No reports on whether French women have started fainting yet.
