Der Spiegel has a series of articles [here] by Peter Baldwin on the subject of why America and Europe are more similar than they are different. Baldwin makes the obvious point that Europe is not a unitary entity, that social and economic policies vary considerably from nation to nation, and that the United States fits comfortably within the range of European variation. This is an attempt to counter the perception, hyped during the Bush administration, that Europe and America were on radically different courses of development. Now that Obama is President the media line has shifted 180 degrees.
It is ironic that the Euromedia is trying to shift public perceptions to emphasize a common Western set of interests at a time when the American President is doing everything he can to distance himself from Europe. Maybe that's the way the dynamic works within the transnational Atlantic elites. When the US seeks to accommodate them, Eurosnobs treat us with contempt. When we hold them at arms length, they seek to placate us. Behind all this is the hard, cold fact that Europe needs us a lot more than we need them.
