Obama wins over hearts and minds in Europe

By Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Barack Obama's presidential candidacy is winning over hearts and minds in Europe, where his race, youth and promise of change are raising hopes for an America the world can like again.

Obama's bid for the U.S. presidency suffered a setback on Tuesday when he failed to clinch the Democratic nomination, losing crucial contests in Ohio and Texas to rival Hillary Clinton.

But in Europe he has emerged as a favourite of the people and media, political analysts say, after a brief European infatuation with the better-known Clinton last year.

Influential German weekly magazine Der Spiegel put a picture of the Illinois Senator on its cover in February under the headline "The Messiah Factor - Barack Obama and the Yearning for a new America".

Inside, the magazine described Obama as a symbol of America's rejection of the George W. Bush era, a period linked in the minds of many Europeans to the Iraq war, Abu Ghraib prison scandal and go-it-alone U.S. diplomacy.

"Germans are in love with Obama," said Volker Perthes, head of the Berlin-based SWP foreign policy think tank. "His election would show America is capable of renewing itself, of self-correcting after the Bush years."

Karsten Voigt, coordinator for U.S. relations in the German Foreign Ministry, said Berlin could work well with Obama, Clinton and the Republican nominee John McCain -- a sentiment echoed in other European capitals.

But he drew a clear distinction between the view of government officials and those of the population, who he said wanted the clear change that Obama promises.