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Europeans are besotted with Obama. UK Prime Minister Brown is planning his schedule right around Obama’s visit and Germans are happily fighting about whether it’s appropriate to have Obama speak from the Brandenburg Gate. But George W. Bush will still be President for a while.

The Times concentrates on the here and now in American politics. And in the here and now favours are granted for cash. Stephen Payne will arrange meetings with the powers at large in the White House, but for a price.

During an undercover investigation by The Sunday Times, Payne was asked to arrange meetings in Washington for an exiled former central Asian president. He outlined the cost of facilitating such access. “The exact budget I will come up with, but it will be somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it going directly to the Bush library,” said Payne, who sits on the US homeland security advisory council. He said initially that the “family” of the Asian politician should make the donation. He later added that if all the money was paid to him he would make the payment to the Bush library. Publicly, it would appear to have been made in the politician’s name “unless he wants to be anonymous for some reason”.(read more)

So, that’s what Presidential libraries are for, money laundering? Small wonder Bill Clinton adamantly refuses to publish a list of donors.

The Independent is worried about the incresing “tit for tat” politics around the nuclear ambitions of Iran. The ongoing bickering may finally evolve into the military conflict we fear and some would welcome.

What began in 2003 as a legitimate attempt to persuade Iran to desist from its hitherto secret enrichment programme has snowballed into a confrontation between the US and Iran embroiling pretty much the entire Middle East, worrying Russia and China and potentially affecting the daily lives of Europeans.

Tit for tat is likely to continue and, unchecked, could lead to wars nobody wants. Is there a way out? Can Europeans do something effective? The answer to both questions is “Yes”. (read more)

By the way, the Iranian missile tests were not only propagated with doctored pictures, they were a propaganda sham entirely.

Der Spiegel is preoccupied with Bush still, too. Gabor Steingart invites George Bush to take a walk and have a look at the real world, but

However, the president doesn’t want to understand and he doesn’t even want to go for a walk. That’s why at the meeting of the world’s eight most industrialized nations the most powerful man in the world had to have the world explained to him by seven less powerful leaders. They encouraged him to finally contemplate a future without oil, and they persuaded him that the aim of reducing CO2 emissions by 2050 was possible. The US president didn’t lead, he followed. The world’s only superpower has seldom looked quite as small as it did this week. (read more)

The Guardian/Observer is voicing a desire for a normal relationship with the United States and sets it’s hopes on Barack Obama.

Barack Obama will arrive in Europe this week to a tumultuous reception. Europe – and the rest of the world – has watched in awe the amazing political theatre that has surrounded his bid to be America’s first black President. Should he win in November Obama’s priorities will be domestic ones but he also has a formidable opportunity to help recast America’s relationship with the world. It is this relationship which took such a battering during the Bush presidency as anti-Americanism took root across the globe (though not, it has to be said, in large parts of Africa where the current American President did much of his best foreign work). The euphoria surrounding his presidential bid offers him a brilliant opportunity to repurpose the relationship between America and the world. And all of us would benefit. (read more)

The Telegraph has a similar standpoint. Both Tory leader David Cameron and Prime Minister Gordon Brown will take whatever time it takes to meet Obama:

The Democratic presidential candidate is due to visit London as part of a major foreign tour of Europe and the Middle East but he has been unable to finalise his itinerary, leaving the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition dangling. Downing Street officials are relaxed about the scheduling problems and say the government has made clear they are happy to accommodate the White House frontrunner whenever he can fit them in. The Tory leader, who has previously forged links with John McCain, Mr Obama’s Republican rival, is understood to be equally keen. (read more)

Well Gordon Brown can indeed use some glamour, he is almost as popular as George W. Bush and the coming elections will most probably put an end to his premiership.

I wish you all a good Sunday, grab a coffee and read. There is much more to be found where I found the articles above.