Advice for Obama from Europe

In the Financial Times a week ago, Tyler Brûlé, the editor-in-chief of Monocle magazine (a personal favorite), offered president-elect Barack Obama a few suggestions, including:

6) Media. All US news outlets should devote 30 per cent of their pages or airtime to overseas news and views.
7) Scale it down. Small should be positioned as truly beautiful:­ the new administration should champion small businesses, smaller-scale living and smaller calorie intake.

Good suggestions, though I'm less enthusiastic about his comments on the big 3 automakers: "... Detroit should be left to wither. Yes, there'll be job losses and the state of Michigan will need to rethink what it wants to be (a province of Canada perhaps?) ..."

Obama and Europe

Arianna Huffington writes about criticism Barack Obama has been receiving because of his popularity in Europe (where a June poll in the Telegraph revealed “a striking level of anti-American feeling” and over 65% of those polled in Italy, France, and Germany indicated support for Obama).

Why wouldn’t we want the President of the United States to be liked and respected by the leaders and peoples of other nations, particularly those of our allies in Europe? One might think that increasing a sense of good will toward Americans and the U.S. would be beneficial to our long-term national security, among other things.

(By the way, I can’t help but wonder which candidate they prefer in McCain’s favorite European "country": Czechoslovakia.)