One thing I realized on my recent Euro travels is that President Bush set out to democratize the wrong part of the world. It is European-Union Europe  (gripped by welfare state socialists, identity-denying appeasers and leftist totalitarian bureacrats), NOT the Islamic Middle East, that could have actually benefited from an infusion of good, ol' fashioned democratic principles--you know, freedom of speech, respect for election results (see EU attempts to reverse Ireland's recent No vote on the Lisbon Treaty), things like that. 

That said, it is even more astonishing  to read in this morning's Washington Post how there is now a force on the global political spectrum to the Left of lefty Europe. It is called Barack Obama for President.  The Post, of course, didn't frame the story that way exactly, but the facts speak for themselves. The Post reports:

European officials are increasingly concerned that Sen. Barack  Obama's campaign pledge to begin direct talks with Iran on its nuclear program without preconditions could potentially rupture U.S. relations with key European allies early in a potential Obama administration.

Silly us. There we we were assuming Europe considered Obama to be the hope-and-change antidote to Cowboy Bush. But now "European officials" are finding themselves to be more, er, um, hawkish than Sen. Obama. Which is quite bizarre, given the utter absence of even one hawkish feather among "European officials." Equally as amazing, the UN Security Council is also looking more brutish than Barack, having passed four resolutions "demanding"-love the tough talk--that "Iran stop enriching uranium, the Post notes, "each time highlighting the offer of financial and diplomatic incentives from a European-led coalition if Tehran suspends enrichment." Barack, on the other (and demonstrably farther Left) hand, doesn't demand anything in exchange for engaging Iran.

In other words, Goody Bag Politik is now to the Right of the Obama  Doctrine.

The head spins.