DID YOU EVER THINK YOU'D SEE THIS? – AT 8:15 A.M. ET:  Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerts us to a remarkable front page from a German leftist newspaper:

Yes, you've got that right.  It's Barack Obama morphing into George W. Bush.  If someone told you a year ago that a European paper would print that, would you have believed it?

It seems that the German left is upset with the new messiah because he hasn't turned out to be the Marxist pacifist they'd expected.  The newspaper above writes:

"Barack Obama has never -- not even during his electoral campaign -- made a secret of the fact that he does not rule out war as a political tool. Otherwise he would not have been elected. Those in Europe who believed that his statement wasn't serious, and was accompanied by a knowing wink towards the pacifists, only have themselves to blame. Military strength and the willingness to use it, are fundamental in the United States, which has not had territorial wars since the mid-19th century."

"You don't have to like it, but ignoring this global political reality ... reveals naivete. Whoever saw Obama as a prince of peace has made a mistake. He is a rational military commander. But at least he is rational, and honest -- at least as far as we have seen so far. Both of these traits set him apart from his predecessor."

COMMENT:  Oh dear, oh dear.  It's the same thing in Europe as in the U.S. – a left-wing paper must get in a dig at BUSH (!!).  Otherwise, the presses freeze in place. 

As for the substance, the paper apparently believes that Obama is more rational than Bush.  Seriously?  Bush understood the enemy; it took Obama a year to figure it out.  As for honesty, the German left editors might note Obama's pledge to open health-care hearings to CSPAN.  Compare please with reality.

Europe has always had its illusions.  Those illusions just continue.

January 8, 2010