German Socialists Seeking Their Own Obama

I'll make them a deal. They can have the original.

Can Germany's Social Democrats find a Barack Obama of their own to revive their party?

At a recent rally in Nuremberg, Hubertus Heil, the deputy leader in the struggling SPD, tried to inject a bit of the charisma and can-do spirit of the Democratic presidential candidate by asking delegates to chant: "Yes, we can".

It didn't go down well.

After a moment of mumbled 'Yes, Vee Kahn", the English chants fizzled out. But since that rally in late May, German media and dispirited members of the centre-left SPD, which has slumped to post-war lows in opinion polls, have been asking: "Where's our Obama?"

Some on the left think Berlin's popular Mayor Klaus Wowereit might be the best hope to give the SPD a lift in the way Obama's historic candidacy has helped boost the U.S. Democrats.

I have to laugh when they call Marxists centre-left. Anyway, what does it tell you when a Communist party is seeking their own Obama?