Why Europe Loves A Leader It Could Never Vote For.(Periscope; Obamamania)(Barack Obama)

Byline: Stefan Theil

What was most interesting about the throngs who came to see Barack Obama in Europe last week was never articulated in public. It's that they adore him for America (the Bild tabloid called the German reaction "love at first sight") but would never get to vote for someone like him at home.

To be sure, Europeans swinging American flags again instead of burning effigies of the U.S. president is a refreshing sight. To many Europeans, Obama feels like one of them--mildly left of center, talking about cooperation, promising that America will act on climate change. But Europe's adulation of the half-Kenyan senator has some observers asking an obvious question: he'd be a shoo-in if Europeans could vote in America, but would they pick him in Europe? Would a German Turk, a Dutch Indonesian or a Franco-Algerian stand a chance of making it up the ranks of the Continent's major political parties? "Absolutely not," says Jerome Mack, a London-based corporate diversity consultant.

In the main, that's not even due to overt racism, says Mack. "Europe's approach to ethnic diversity has been benign neglect," he says, and it's waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for minorities to perfectly assimilate. Often, Europeans don't even seem to think it's an issue. In June, many Germans were simply offended when ...