Are Europeans Disappointed With Obama?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Obama- the Savior- a German spoof on a term once applied to Hitler


It may be purely anecdotal, but if my conversations with friends the past 10 days in Erlangen, Germany are any example, yes, they are.

The last 10 days of my trip to Germany were spent in Erlangen, a university city near Nuremberg where I spent my army time in the 1960s.  I also wrote a book on the city's history and as a result have met many of the city's leaders, historians and historiographers. A little more background is in order. As a seat of Siemens and the university of Erlangen, the city is regarded as arguably having the highest per capita educational level in the country-at least as far as a survey indicated a few years ago.

So in my conversations with my German friends, it was interesting that several of them expressed disappointment with President Obama in so far as what they had expected of him in terms of bridging divides and improving foreign relations. (According to one friend, Obama still enjoys high popularity among German youth.)

In short, when asked if I was similarly disappointed, my answer was, "No- I didn't expect anything in the first place."

How can I be disappointed?

"What? Me disappointed?"