Guy W. Farmer: How effective was Obama in Europe?

President Obama and his lovely wife Michelle were greeted like rock stars in Europe, but that doesn't mean their trip was entirely successful from a foreign policy point of view.

Acting as his own best public diplomacy specialist, our new president said some of the right things and made many new friends for the U.S. But that's only part of the story.

"I have come to listen and to learn," Obama told the Europeans. That's a standard opening line for any U.S. politician embarking on his or her first foreign trip and it's almost word-for-word what former Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes told Middle Eastern audiences a few years ago. American journalists crucified her for being naïve and uninformed, which leads me to believe that the media have a different standard for Obama.

Although there was plenty of fawning press coverage of the Obamas' European tour, some journalists asked tough questions about whether the president had achieved his foreign policy objectives. As the Associated Press reported from the NATO summit in Strasbourg, France, Obama garnered commitments "for more civilian aid and small troop increases for training Afghan security forces ... but the European public has no stomach for more intense military involvement by their nations." So President Obama fell well short of achieving one of his main policy objectives.

In Turkey, one of the world's most populous Muslim nations, Obama assured a parliamentary audience that "the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam." Al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, the two biggest Arab satellite TV channels, carried his speech live to millions of viewers throughout the Middle East " a public diplomacy coup, in my opinion, and a major achievement along with the personal relationships he established with world leaders.

Writing in the New York Times, French journalist Amelie Nothomb echoed many Europeans when she noted that "we are envious because Americans are so evidently proud of their president...We would love to feel the same way about our presidents and our leaders." She added that "many French intellectuals hate Barack Obama because they feel that too many people adore him."

Well, envy is a complex emotion, especially when it rears its ugly head in international relations.

Michelle Obama charmed the Europeans. Some stuffy Brits went berserk when she touched the queen, but Her Majesty responded in kind despite a breach in royal etiquette. But who cares? The Obamas got along well with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, so they're off to a good start on an international charm offensive. Now the president needs to concentrate on policy.

- Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.