Der Deutscher Obama - News in Germany

[sfpcjock]

Ja doch, wenns möglich! :toast: Even though conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel knew a turkey--Bush--when she felt one, everyone seems to agree it wouldn't hurt to have a German Obama, instead of a Christian Democrat. I hope that Barack didn't break the mold and that German's can have one soon, too :D

Most Germans want their own Obama

Published: 28 Jan 09 18:01 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20090128-17059.html

An overwhelming majority of Germans wish they could have a Teutonic version of US President Barack Obama, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.

Some 76 percent of 1,000 people surveyed by pollster Forsa for weekly magazine Stern said Germany needed a politician with the same sort of charisma as the new American leader.

With 86 percent wanting a “German Obama,” supporters of the environmentalist Greens were the most enthusiastic about having their very own Barack. Some 83 percent of centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were keen on the idea, whereas only 76 percent of backers of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats were. Even 74 percent of supporters of the hard-line socialist Left party thought Germany could benefit from someone like Obama.

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In other German news:

U.S. deserter seeking German asylum

Published: Feb. 1, 2009 at 3:48 PM

KARLSRUHE, Germany, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. Army deserter says he's looking forward to telling his side of the story at an upcoming political asylum hearing in Germany.



Andre Shepherd, formerly of Cleveland, will attend a court hearing in Karlsruhe, Germany, this week in an attempt to gain asylum in the country, where he's been living openly since surfacing there in November, the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Sunday.

"I have my first chance to tell my complete side of the story," Shepherd told the newspaper, saying he is prepared to embrace a new homeland. "I feel I don't have to prove myself anymore. I just want to be able to be myself and be able to talk to people."

Military officials say Shepherd went AWOL while posted in southern Germany in April 2007, living underground with help from friends. He contends his enlistment in the Army was a contract that was broken because former President George Bush "lied to the nation, to the world at large and he also lied to the U.S. military" about the war in Iraq and why the nation is involved.

Germans, like most of the rest of the world, accurately blame the U.S. for the current world economic slowdown. Fortunately for us, this view tends to drive them closer to alliance with our new Democratic President Obama who inherited the mess from the Bush-schmuck. See Fareed Zacharia GPS this weekend on CNN for more on this from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the Christine Amanpour report from Davos.

Merkel calls for new global economic order

Published: 30 Jan 09 18:01 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20090130-17111.html



German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Friday for a global economic charter to enforce new standards when the world comes out of the financial crisis.

Merkel said governments must take firmer control of markets and used a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos to again criticise US subsidies to ailing American car firms.

The German chancellor said international leaders must make a commitment to free market forces while ending the excesses and "irresponsible deeds" that caused the crisis. She said Germany's social market economy could reconcile both aims.

"The state is the guardian of the economic and social order so it has a very clear role. Competition is necessary but it is something that also needs a certain discipline and principles.

"Freedom is a necessary precondition for market forces to operate. But individual freedom needs to be limited if it takes freedom away from others. A completely unfettered market cannot take this structure."

She said the world needs "clear cut rules quite in contrast to an unfettered capitalism that runs enormous financial risks."

The principles she outlined "need an integrated financial system with the necessary institutions to take necessary international responsibilities."

Merkel said there had to be an open world economy. "We must not allow market forces to be completely distorted because every country is fighting for survival."

The chancellor declared that she was "very wary of seeing subsidies in the United States being injected right now into the automobile industry. This must not be allowed to last too long because they invevitably lead to some distortion and are quite frankly protectionism."

Governments also had to commit to protecting the environment and efforts to reduce the poverty gap.

"All these principles need to be enshrined in the form of a global economic order charter" which could be agreed by the Group of 20 countries, the major powers and developing nations who are to hold a new summit on the economic crisis in London in April.

The charter "could lead to the establishment of a UN economic council, just as the Security Council was created after World War II", she said highlighting the importance of the UN body in dealing with the wartime crimes of the German Nazis.

"We must pool all of our energy and cooperate at the international level," Merkel said.

The chancellor's spokesman on Friday said Germany will bring together the heads of major international economic institutions next week for a meeting on the state of the global economy.

Merkel will hold a working lunch Thursday in Berlin with the directors of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the International Labour Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Trade Organisation, deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said.

Steg said such meetings were intended "to reinforce cooperation among and with international organisations" and were first launched during the German presidency of the Group of Eight most industrialised nations in 2007.

"..the world needs "clear cut rules quite in contrast to an unfettered capitalism that runs enormous financial risks." . I found this to be so refreshing coming from a conservative politician, albeit a German one.

[SurfingScientist]

1. "Angie" Merkel is a Scientist...

... a Physicist, and was a University professor prior to becoming a professional-track politician.
(Yes, we have a FEMALE SCIENTIST at the helm!!! So proud of that. )

Regardless of her party affiliation, she is likely very able to see which concepts work, and which ones must fail, in a complex system that is the economy.

She has also been known to govern quite successfully by use of smart power. Happy to have her.

[Blue_Tires]

2. welcome to the site!

[SurfingScientist]

3. Thank you!!!

... DU is a great place to be! :)