ANOTHER PROMISE UNKEPT - AT 7:22 A.M. ET:  During the campaign, President Obama promised to repair our relations with the universe, claiming that President Bush had destroyed them.  Why, why, even the people of Mars were angry with us, as our NASA probes apparently learned. 

Well, it turned out our relations were actually in pretty good shape.  Mr. Bush had produced a better relationship with India, the world's largest democracy, than we'd ever had.  Nations of Africa admired him for his AIDS program.  Japan had become an even closer ally.  Eastern Europe was in the pro-American camp.

But then there was Western Europe, playground of the political elites.  The Europeans were frowning, but Barack would wave his wand and cure that problem.  After all, he drew big crowds over there.

But, as Ralph Peters points out, the only thing Obama has produced among the governments of Western Europe is dismay:

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.

And Chicago would have registered them.  But what did the European elites get?

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.

Of course, the Europhiles in the mainstream media haven't noticed, so in love with The One are they.

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.

And...

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.

Oh, I'm liking this.

In the past, our policy often has been too Euro-centric. But we need a useful balance, not a trans-Atlantic Cold War.

Obama just seems to have it in for Europe on a personal level.

Much of our president's youth was spent in the Third World; his closest relatives viewed events through a wacky leftist lens -- and he sat for decades in a church whose pastor ranted against Jews, "racist" America and our foreign policy. It would be astonishing if Obama hadn't internalized such views by sheer osmosis.

By the way, that pastor - Rev. Wright - just surfaced again today, charging that Jews would prevent him from speaking with Obama.  What a great man of God.

Our president not only identifies with the Third World, but with a romanticized Third World whose failings are all the West's fault. It's the typical view of an undergraduate leftist -- in 1979.

Europe is going to miss George W. Bush.

COMMENT:  And not just Europe.  Imagine what the South Koreans and Japanese must think of our tough-as-marshmallows response to North Korea. 

People are noticing.

June 10, 2009