Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Friendly to US Italy to Be Location of First Major Foreign Event for New US President

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Italy is hosting next year's G8 summit on La Maddalena, a small island off Sardinia. so it is serendipitous that the first major foreign event for New US President  will be in Italy that has a Special fondness for the US, partially , because there are 16 million Italian emigrants that live in the US, equivalent to a third of the population of Italy.

 

While both Obama and McCain would be warmly received, Obama has a 70 % approval rating, and McCain has a 20 % approval rating, which may reflect  the bitterness Italy has for Bush and his Iraq Invasion.Three million Italians  took to the streets of Rome to protest against the war in Iraq.

 

 

Fond Italians Yearn for Their Own Special Relationship: US election 2008

 

Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

By Malcolm Moore, Rome Correspondent

May  29, 2008

Serendipity has ensured that first major event for the next US president will take place on friendly soil.

Italy is hosting next year's G8 summit on La Maddalena, a small island off Sardinia that used to be a US nuclear base. Unlike the rest of Europe, the Bel Paese remains devoted to the US and will greet whoever wins the election warmly.

The majority of respondents to a poll commissioned by Telegraph.co.uk said the US is a force for evil in the world, but in Italy the scores were reversed, and 49 per cent of people said the superpower is a force for good.

If any European country is entitled to think it has a "special relationship" with the US, Italy has a strong case. Almost 16 million Italian emigrants live in the US, equivalent to a third of the population of Italy.

Grandfathers remember the role that the US played in the liberation of the country during the Second World War and also the huge sums of money that America poured into the rebuilding effort. Italy remains the site of America's largest military bases in Europe.

Americans drink more Italian wine than French, and Italy is their number one tourist destination in Europe. Total exports of Italy's fine wines, cars, leather, clothes and other goods last year to the US were worth #17 billion, while the US pumped almost #12 billion of foreign investment into the country.

However, George W Bush's administration has caused great bitterness. More than three million people took to the streets of Rome to protest against the war in Iraq and Silvio Berlusconi was repeatedly criticised for sending Italian troops into both Afghanistan and Iraq. Italy is a strongly religious and strongly pacifist country.

Out of their disappointments with President Bush has grown from a love of Barack Obama. Fan clubs for the Illinois senator have sprung up across Italy and on the Internet. Italians see him not only as stylish and sharply dressed, but, as one commentator put it: "he is the sense of change incarnate". An astonishing 70 per cent of respondents supported him in the Telegraph poll.

Italians yearn for a similar political change  their politicians remain in the system for decade after decade. In the Italian election in April, Walter Veltroni, the leader of the Italian Democratic Party, tried to capitalise on the popular support for Mr Obama.

Not only did he refer to himself as an "Italian Obama" throughout the campaign, he even appropriated his "Yes We Can" slogan and translated it into Italian "Si puo fare!" Sadly, the tactic only served to highlight the differences between the two.

Unlike the stylish black senator, John McCain is seen in Italy as a slightly crumpled version of Silvio Berlusconi, due to their similar ages. Mr McCain is one year older than Italy's prime minister.

He unwittingly reinforced his antiquity in a recent interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, a financial newspaper. Seeking to boost his popularity in Italy, Mr McCain spoke gushingly about Italy as "the scene of all [his] best memories".

"Ah Italy, Italy, the best parts of my life were there. To be a single young man, well, Italy was a paradise," he said. However, those memories date back from the early 1960s, when he was a pilot with the Sixth Fleet in Naples.

He did score some points, however, by referring to his 95-year-old mamma, always a strong card to play in a land where every man speaks to his mother at least once a day.

His lack of general support, however, was reflected in only 20 per cent of Italians thinking he is better equipped than Mr Obama to steer the US out of its economic woes.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/2049789/Fond-Italians-yearn-for-their-own-special-relationship--US-election-2008.html

 

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (With Archives*) on:

Italia USA: www.ItaliaUSA.com * [Formerly Italy at St Louis]

Italia Mia: www.ItaliaMia.com *

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net