Echoes of Kennedy as Obama embraces Europe

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President's Strasbourg address electrifies crowd. Commitment to Nato welcomed as summit begins
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/echoes-of-kennedy-as-obama-embraces-europe-1662227.html

Pushing out the horizons to his agenda for change, Barack Obama stood before an audience of young Europeans yesterday and reached out to proclaim a renewed transatlantic partnership. He dangled the most daring ambition of all: the forging of a "world without nuclear weapons".

As Nato leaders gathered for a summit co-hosted by France and Germany in Strasbourg, Mr Obama paced the stage of a city sports stadium, and called for an end to "tensions" between America and Europe. "Our fates are tied together," he said.

With its cement floors and echoing rafters, the venue offered no grandeur or pomp. But as Mr Obama introduced himself to mostly French and German school students with a "bon après-midi" and launched into a speech more sweeping than anyone had anticipated, the occasion evoked the "Ich bin ein Berliner" moment of John F Kennedy nearly five decades ago. If Europe wants to be in love with Mr Obama, he will not resist.

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If, in his European tour as President, Mr Obama is revelling in not being George Bush, he is getting ample help from his hosts. "It feels really good to work with an American president who wants to change the world," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier, adding that the new US leader "understands that the world does not boil down to American frontiers and borders". From the French public too, the reception was rapturous. Cries of "Formidable!" and "Il est magnifique!" rose up from a crowd that had massed outside the towering, gothic spires of Strasbourg's Notre-Dame cathedral as the presidential Cadillac roared up. "C'est le plus grand président du monde!" clapped a five-year-old schoolgirl.

A war veteran wept as Mr Obama stopped to shake his hand. "I arrived here at 8am and waited for four hours but it was all worth it," he said before extending his own hand to people around him. "He shook my hand, come and shake mine."

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1. Oh my God! He talked to them like they were equal or something! nt