Mad Men, Europeans and Obama: if they only knew, by gimleteye

The size of the Berlin crowd that gathered to hear Barack Obama last week in Europe was unprecedented. And in its size was a collective yearning by Europeans for new American leadership.

The 200,000 citizens did not assemble exclusively to hear what Obama had to say: as a candidate in the midst of a presidential election, his foreign visit tread carefully in respect to American voters.

The turnout was symbolic of hope: hope that a new president will help the United States regain its direction, economic strength and leadership.

Since the Second World War, Europeans have measured themselves to the cut and fit of the United States. Our relations during this time were ordered by the Cold War. From politics to culture, Europeans emulated, objected to, admired and reviled us.

What Europe depended on, above all else, is the projection of American strength based on fairness, equity, and independence from the cloistered economic elites of kingdoms and dictators. The terms of George W. Bush have done major damage to American prestige and influence in the world.

Europeans were incredulous when President Bush said to the American people, we are fighting in Iraq so that we don't have to fight our enemies on American soil. Europeans have been struggling on their own soil for decades: should it, or, could it be any different in the United States?

The disappearance of the Soviet state, and the order of our relations with Europe, coincided with a waves of immigration from poor nations around the world; Muslims, Africans, and Asians.

Most Europeans believe that the administration of George W. Bush has been highly damaging to US prestige and the projection of political authority, and that administration priorities mainly protect economic elites--for instance, Big Oil and its profits.

Culture and the economy always go hand-in-hand, and the economic weakness of the United States weighs heavily on Europeans as well. In the massive rally for Barack Obama in Berlin was a second hope: that the United States will regain its economic footing.

I first visited Europe, in the early 1960's, the context of the acclaimed television series, "Mad Men" that chronicles the emergence of cultural stereotypes in the world of Manhattan advertising. The consumerism that the United States economy dispersed through Europe, through economic growth beginning in the 1960's, was a rising tide for decades.

Today, the US dollar is so weak and atrophied that American visitors to Europe feel like paupers.

Americans yearn for a more simple and orderly time. Many just want cheap gas. Europeans are hoping that the November election will be more than that: they are rooting for America and hope that we are listening.