On European Trip, Rock-Star Obama Faces Skeptical Allies.

Washington - The new American president's debut on the world stage, beginning Tuesday in London in advance of the Group of 20 meeting, is sure to have its share of "Hello!" magazine moments and glamour. He will, after all, meet with Queen Elizabeth II, an established member of the thin upper crust of global personalities and an international rock star in her own right.

"The [administration's] goal is, I sense, to provide a balance of providing a strong sense of leadership, but ... that, also, we have a president now who's listening," says Stephen Flanagan, a former senior director for Central and Eastern Europe at the National Security Council and now at CSIS. "That was one of the big laments, I think, about the previous administration – that they seemed to be more in broadcast mode all the time."

"By the end of his second term, Bush was much closer to the European governments than he had been, but he was still strongly disapproved of by a lot of the general public," says Reginald Dale, an expert in transatlantic affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) here. "Obama is adored by the general public but still has to prove himself to the governments."

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