The Mercury News: Europe hopeful with outcome of U.S. elections - by Matthew Schofield

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Europe hopeful with outcome of U.S. elections - by Matthew Schofield

BERLIN - Europeans awoke Wednesday feeling a bit more comfortable with their partners across the Atlantic after five years of unease with American under the Bush administration. The Bush administration has been intensely unpopular with Europeans because of the war on terror, especially the invasion of Iraq, and the go-it-alone nature of American foreign policy.

Jens van Scherpenberg, who studies the United States at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said the results "will be seen as a sign that the U.S. electorate has turned more normal again, or even more European. Voters seemed to focus on national and international issues, not local issues, and that's a bit more like us," he said.