HE'S NOT ANTI-EUROPEAN, JUST ISOLATIONIST:

Europe is waiting for the messiah (The Economist, 1/30/09)

In his inaugural speech, the new U.S. president did not mention the European Union once. Obama may be at the center of Europe's preoccupations, but Europe does not appear to be at the center of his.

It was three days before Obama telephoned a European leader. [...]

European rivalry over that first call is matched when it comes to the first meeting. [...]

"Everybody wants the first visit of the messiah," remarks one French official wryly.

As long as George W. Bush was in office, Europeans could throw up their hands over the treatment of the Guantanamo Bay prison inmates but feel little pressure to take any of them in; or, indeed, to do more to help in Afghanistan. Under Obama nobody will dare to seem so curmudgeonly.