[August]

I don't have any polls to back it up Skybird but I'd bet that at least 90% of Americans didn't have an opinion of Schroeder one way or the other. There are of course exceptions to any generalization, but it's my opinion that Americans as a group tend not to get much involved in the internal politics of those we consider to be friendly allied nations.

Sure, you might see some interest when your leaders do or say things that are reported to us to be insulting or harmful to our country or its representatives but even then a large percentage of the US population won't take the time out of their daily lives to have an opinion about it either way.

To us it's "Labour or Tory? yeah but they're still both British right?" The distinctions between German Social Democrat, Christian Democrat or who knows what else Democrat are basicly lost on us. As long as one of the words isn't "nazi" or "prussian" we hardly discern the difference. Most of us, if we take the time to think about it, figure you'll eventually come up with a majority consensus and that's really the only thing we want to hear.

The reason for this, I think, is that most Americans, throughout our history and even now in the world society of the 21st century (AD), deep down still believe that America is the best country in the world to live in, so who really cares what the Germans, or the French, or even the British, are arguing about amongst themselves this month? Nothing personal about this you understand, just we feel its not our business what you say at your own kitchen tables about your own fellow citizens.

Europeans in particular seem, at least from this side of the pond, to be the exact opposite. You have opinions, strong opinions, on nearly everything we do. This tends to flabbergast us! You're always comparing yourselves to us in all kinds of ways from driver expertise to standards of living to sports, even our politics. Because of this you are often seen, as international busy bodies akin an neighbor poking his nose into our family business uninvited.

I do not say this is the right attitude to take, nor the intelligent one, especially given the increasing number of "world problems" a concept that to us here way over on the other side of the atlantic (or the pacific) was pretty much meaningless until recent times, but I think it may be an understandable one for a people on a completely different continent to take.

So, regardless of your personal feelings please treat our President with the respect we'd show the leader of your country were she to come over here for an official state visit.

Not because she is a Christian-National-Green-Socialist-Democrat or whatever you people are calling your parties this week, :p but because she, is the elected head of your nation and is therefore a representative and a symbol of German people, a strange far away people from the old world who, like the British, were once our enemies but are now our friends and allies.