The Europeans have spoken, and the next President of the United States is: John F. Kerry. No surprise there, but the New York Times makes some dangerous assumptions in their little story. They take a few commentators in several Europeans papers and declare what “[t]he belief across Europe seemed to be.”
The stories author is Richard Bernstein, and his assumption is probably a safe one, though not universal.
According to a French historian, Europeans loved Kerry’s Thursday speech because it “put the blame where many Europeans see the blame, at the door of the Bush administration.” The blame for what, who knows?
This same French historian, one Justin Vaïsse, added that though Europe appreciated the Bush-bashing, they saw few indications in Kerry’s speech that he would be much different from the President:
Noting the line in Mr. Kerry’s speech about not needing a green light from abroad before taking actions to defend its interests, Mr. Vaïsse said: “In France, they don’t have overblown expectations. Kerry would be like the second Clinton administration, not as arrogant and unilateral as Bush, but it would be no multilateral paradise either.”
So, while allowing the French historian Vaisse to speak for all of Europe, Bernstein neglected to mention that M. Vaisse is a fellow at the liberal Brookings Institution.
But if you want to know what European commentators are saying, the Bernstein piece is a good place to begin.
For instance, he shines some light which proves the lie in a part of the main basis Kerry gives for electing him President:
There is an element of wishful thinking in the European view of Mr. Kerry, a commentator on Polish radio, Zbigniew Lewicki, said Friday. “The Democratic candidate spoke about his willingness to convince the European Union leaders to share the burden of war with Americans,” Mr. Lewicki said. “It’s an illusion. If the European leaders prefer Kerry as president, it’s not because he wants to throw a part of the war costs on their shoulders.”
So I’m not certain which Europeans Brownstein is averring would prefer a Kerry presidency. The people have not been polled. He cites, as I’ve said, a few commentators. Of the European leaders, besides Jacques Chirac, we know only what Kerry himself told us several months back that they’ve told him. (Don’t forget that gaffe.)
