Obama vs. Europe

Ralph Peters:

WHEN Europeans wish upon a star, they get an American president with a huge Third World chip on his shoulder.

Those "sophisticated" Europeans dismissed "cowboy" Bush as a rube beneath their contempt. If the continent's opinion-makers could've changed their voter registrations, they would've flown to Chicago to vote for Barack Obama last fall.

They got what they wanted. But it isn't what they expected.

President Obama may be the least Europe-friendly occupant of the White House since James Monroe (the guy who put up a "Keep Out!" sign on our hemisphere). Bam clearly doesn't like Europeans.

A big chill has hit the trans-Atlantic atmosphere. Beyond the perfunctory grip-and-grins at Saturday's D-Day commemoration, there was no bonhomie between European leaders and our celebrity prez.

Nor can the somber setting -- or even the raw sea breeze -- be blamed for the dour mood in Normandy. The president and first lady maintained their own self-absorbed bubble, enchanted with being the Obamas. President George W. Bush may have been inarticulate, but the Obamas were ungracious.

The new ice age was also evident during Bam's stop in Germany. Walking or standing side by side, he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel looked like a couple going through a brutal divorce who got caught in the same elevator on the way to meet their lawyers.

In France, Obama brushed off Nicolas Sarkozy, the most pro-American president to occupy the Elysée Palace in my lifetime. Sarkozy had to beg for a meeting.

And Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been treated as though the British just burned the White House -- or a Kenyan village -- last week.

One of the left's high-pitched battle cries during last year's election was: "Restore our good relations with Europe!" Welcome to reality.

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Even in his blame-us Cairo speech, Obama's mention of women's rights was aimed not at Middle Eastern savagery, but at France -- where headscarves can't be worn in public schools.

That's rich. Our president praised the "wisdom" of King Abdullah, ignoring Saudi Arabia's hideous treatment of women, but whacked Europeans for insisting that heads -- and identities -- should go uncovered in free societies.

If scarves, hijabs and chadors are so great, why didn't our first lady go to Saudi Arabia and give us a fashion show?

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Where are the complaints about Obama slighting Europe? He's stiff-armed every major European leader except Russia's new czar, Vladimir Putin -- the one quasi-European figure the administration hastened to embrace.

Our relations with Europe were better in Bush's second term than today. The Obama administration bullies allies on economic policy, favors Muslim immigrants in internal disputes, insists (against the wishes of Europe's voters) that Turkey be admitted to the European Union and excludes traditional partners from foreign-policy initiatives.

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Like much of the left in this country, the Europeans have let Obama get away with his abusive behavior. I think it is for the same reason. They think he does not really mean much of what he is saying. The are like the gay rights activist who think he does not mean it when he says he opposes gay marriage but they think it is really scary when a contestant for Miss America opposes it. Which one has the most power?