International Political Dialogue - The U.S. Presidential Election: The German Media's Perspectives on the Candidates

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International Political Dialogue - The U.S. Presidential Election: The German Media's Perspectives on the Candidates
International Political Dialogue - The U.S. Presidential Election: The German Media's Perspectives on the Candidates [printable version]

The U.S. Presidential Election: The German Media's Perspectives on the Candidates
Washington D.C.

The discussion was jointly organised by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Washington, D.C. and concentrated on the US pre-election campaign and in particular on an analysis of the German media and how they see the three remaining candidates. The invited speakers are journalists and correspondents reporting from Washington, D.C.: Mr. Rüdiger Lentz, Deutsche Welle, Mr. Christoph von Marschall, Der Tagesspiegel, and Mr. Gabor Steingart, Der Spiegel.

The first to speak was Mr. Ruediger Lentz, who looks back on 20 years as a reporter from the US. He works for “Deutsche Welle”. At the beginning he referred to the two presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. In both instances, German media had put their money on the Democratic candidate and were proved wrong in the end. This might happen again in 2008.

He therefore concentrated his attention mainly on Senator John McCain, trying to gauge his political objectives and individual features from a German point of view. He felt that there were hardly any interfaces with European value concepts. Differences would mainly turn up in the fields of foreign and security policy. McCain is a glowing supporter of NATO and there would be enormous expectations regarding European NATO partners from an Administration working under him. Lentz summarised his view by saying that Senator John McCain would certainly not be the ideal candidate of the Germans.

It was then up to Mr. Christoph von Marschall, political correspondent of the Tagesspiegel, to introduce Barack Obama, the next candidate. Marschall had just published a book (“Der neue Kennedy”) on the Democratic Party’s shooting star. In his contribution he mainly dealt with the wave of sympathy for Obama from the European Union and Germany in particular. Something on that scale clearly had not been expected. As for America’s debate of the candidate of the Democratic Party he pointed to the value of perceptions. The media reported that Hillary Clinton mainly reached the working class and Barack Obama, the Harvard-trained liberal, was on better terms with the educational elite. Looking at the candidates’ characters, the opposite should be true.

To conclude, Mr. Gabor Steingart, US correspondent and former head of the Spiegel’s office in the German capital, contributed his analysis of Hillary Clinton. She was clearly favoured by Germany’s political class. Recalling his talks with leading representatives of the German government, he said that Angela Merkel, in particular, would welcome co-operating with Hillary Clinton, because of her “experience”. In his words, Hillary Clinton was a political leader with a matter-of-fact orientation. In her confrontation with Barack Obama she had taken cover for too long, presumably because she had underestimated her direct competitor. By now, her appearances in public had changed very much. She acted more confrontationally, coldly exploiting the vulnerable spots presented by her opponent. She had adapted to the demands of her potential electorate and fought for her political survival now.

Questions from the audience mainly revolved about the two presidential candidates fielded by the Democratic Party. Questioners also wanted to find out about the subject matter the candidates stand for and whether this was known to the German public in greater detail. Mr. Ruediger Lentz drew attention to the fact that all three candidates, including Republican John McCain, saw climate change as a matter to be taken seriously, a piece of good news from a German perspective. As far as the economy was concerned, the Democratic candidates especially showed a tendency towards protectionism. Both Clinton and Obama would – on being elected President – support scrutinising and rephrasing free trade agreements. A member of the audience pointed to the fact that John McCain was the only candidate who would uphold the issue of free trade even during periods of falling American growth rates.

Towards the end, however, all three foreign correspondents stressed once again how much the German public took for granted that the next presidential election would be won by a Democrat. Never before in Germany had there been such high density of pre-election reporting. Clearly, the special role of Barack Obama was the reason for the interest Germans took in the American primaries. There was one clear upshot emerging at the end this round of discussion: Because of their present popularity ratings, either Democratic candidate – if elected President - would face unrealisable high expectations in Europe.