KUHNER: The post-national candidate

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As the mainstream media continue to fawn over Sen. Barack Obama, they overlook the major story of the 2008 campaign: He is an internationalist socialist, who is further to the left than any liberal Democratic presidential nominee in recent history. George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, even John Kerry - not one of them ever so explicitly defined himself on the stump as a deracinated globalist detached from his American identity.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Mr. Obama´s recent world tour was not a success, but a dismal failure. Despite the large, cheering crowds and media glitz, the tour has given his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, the opening he needs to win - and win convincingly - in November.

During his visit to Europe, Mr. Obama demonstrated the radical anti-Americanism at the heart of his candidacy. He proclaimed himself "a citizen of the world" - not simply a citizen of the United States. Also, he vowed that, as president, he would consider the "needs, interests and perspectives" of all nations, and not just America´s "narrow, strategic" objectives.

In other words, Mr. Obama pledged to subordinate our national interest to international concerns. This is unprecedented for a would-be president. The primary role of commander in chief is not to be the spokesman for the international community; rather, it is to defend and advance U.S. national interest.

This flies in the face of the attempt by Europe´s ruling elite to create a socialist super-state. The European Union aims to eradicate national identity and state sovereignty in favor of a Continental federation. The EU seeks to forge a new world order based on multilateralism, the dominance of international institutions such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, and the projection of soft power. This leftist globalist worldview underlines European hostility to President Bush. He is everything they despise: a unilateralist, a cowboy and a patriot. In the eyes of most Europeans, Mr. Bush is a dangerous right-winger because he puts America´s national interest first and foremost.

The liberal media are trying to portray Mr. Obama´s warm reception abroad as a powerful sign he is capable of being a world leader. As usual, they are wrong. Europe´s socialists love Mr. Obama because he is one of them.

Mr. Obama would transform the United States into a North American France. He champions a redistributionist, soak-the-rich economic philosophy. He would raise income and Social Security taxes on those making more than $250,000 per annum. He wants to increase tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

Mr. Obama seeks to nationalize health care, expand government with nearly a trillion dollars in new spending, and impose burdensome regulations on corporations and businesses. He is also a protectionist, who vows to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and has opposed free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Central America. Mr. Obama´s class-warfare policies would result in economic sclerosis, lower productivity and higher unemployment - exactly what the French (and the Germans) have today.

He is a European-style leftist on social issues as well. He supports abortion (even partial-birth abortion), court-imposed same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and massive legal and illegal immigration. Mr. Obama´s America would be poorer and more permissive.

On foreign affairs, he advocates Brussels´ line: U.S. withdrawal from Iraq; greater focus on Afghanistan; multilateral diplomacy to contain Iran; closer dialogue and engagement with China and Russia; and a U.N.-led, law-enforcement approach toward fighting Islamic terrorism. In other words, the United States is to be emasculated, and its military strength and geopolitical interests tied down by a nexus of transnational institutions and intricate alliances.

Europe´s political class rightly senses that Mr. Obama represents a new breed of American statesmen - someone, like them, who believes the era of nation-states and American dominance on the world stage is over. They understand that his brand of post-modern internationalism signifies transformation of America into a paper tiger.

Mr. Obama repeatedly says on the campaign trail that he embodies a "new kind of politics." Instead of being post-racial and post-partisan, however, he is really post-national. His cosmopolitan liberalism plays well with effete, multicultural elites on college campuses and in Manhattan and Hollywood. But it won´t resonate in the heartland, where patriotism and American exceptionalism are still not dirty words.

Mr. Obama´s team will certainly use the images of his world tour in campaign ads. Mr. McCain would be wise to use Mr. Obama´s actual words against him. They reveal him for who he truly is - and it is someone most Americans will reject.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist for The Washington Times.