Obama is “The New Dalai Lama”

In a column in the Süddeutschen Zeitung, one of Germany's leading dailies, the German Marshall Fund’s Constanze Stelzenmüller discusses Barack Obama’s popularity among German politicians and the German population in general. She writes that Obama’s popularity in Germany has reached levels that domestic politicians can only dream of and is comparable only to that of figures such as the highly popular Dalai Lama. The headline uses wordplay, Der Dalai Obama (The Dalai Obama).

Obama’s popularity in Germany was confirmed in a recent survey for the British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, which showed that Obama has the support of 67 percent of Germans against six percent for John McCain. This was the biggest gap in support among the six countries surveyed.

German politicians have also openly expressed admiration for Obama. According to Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Germany’s Social Democratic Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier made a reference to Obama by using the phrase “yes, we can,” in a talk on repairing transatlantic relations during a recent lecture at Harvard. Stelzenmüller attributes the popularity of Obama in Germany to his foreign policy, notably his promises to send more troops to Afghanistan, open diplomatic talks with Iran, conduct a more active diplomatic effort in the wider Middle East, and assume more security responsibilities in Kosovo.

It is much the same story in Scandinavia. In Denmark, a February poll among members of the Danish Parliament found that a majority favored Obama over McCain and that Obama would win both the democratic nomination and the presidency if Danish politicians were the ones to decide. In Norway, a similar poll in January found that 67 out of 84 members of parliament who expressed a preference would vote for a Democratic candidate. In Sweden, center-right Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has publicly endorsed Obama.