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LONDON -- John Kerry and other speakers at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this week repeated a message that resonated in Europe among people increasingly angry over what they see as President George W. Bush's unilateral approach to Iraq and other foreign policy issues.
"People are careful not to say too much because they know Bush may be around for another four years. But many people are rooting for Kerry because they see him as perhaps more European in the way he thinks," said Francois Heisbourg, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris.
In his acceptance speech Thursday, Kerry promised to "rebuild our alliances" and to restore "America's respect and leadership so we don't have to go it alone in the world."
Polls in Europe rate Kerry over Bush, whom many Europeans deride as a brusque cowboy in his approach to world affairs.
"The world will not be voting. If it were, Democrat John Kerry would be elected by an avalanche. Even in Britain, where pro-U.S. sentiment remains strong, voters prefer Kerry to Bush by five to one," liberal columnist Sunder Katwala wrote this week in Britain's Guardian newspaper.
"The general sense this week is still that the majority of people in Britain feel anyone would be better than Bush," said John Kent, a lecturer in international relations at the London School of Economics. "I don't sense any enormously positive reactions about Kerry except for the fact that he's someone other than Bush."
Most major newspapers across the region weighed in this week on Kerry, who speaks fluent French and spent two years of his childhood in Europe.
The Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger said it hopes Kerry's team will continue to relate specifics about his vision rather than simply expressing deep revulsion against the Bush administration.
Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung said Kerry has won points among U.S. voters who want an inclusive president.
Die Presse in Vienna argued that Europe should fear a victory by Kerry simply because it could then no longer turn up its nose at Bush and duck its responsibilities in international crises.
In France, where the government led global opposition last year to the U.S.-led war on Iraq, many people were particularly keen to get a look at Kerry.
The French daily Le Monde said the future of the world was being decided this week at the Democratic convention.
But Paris' Le Figaro said Bush still has an edge when it comes to projecting a sympathetic approach to the common American on the street.
In Britain, some fear a Kerry win would leave Prime Minister Tony Blair alone on the global scene as the last of the three main pro-war allies holding office.
Spain's Jose Maria Aznar was voted out earlier this year. His defeat was attributed, in part, to his support for the Iraq war.
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