Yes, infinitely preferable is a president who's truthful about his statist agenda.
in terms of policies, he doesn't seem that much more statist than McCain -- and less likely to start enforcing social conservatism o'er the land. And besides, some of the "craziest" stuff in terms of gov't control of previously market owned institutions has happened well before the start of his presidency.
And come to think of it, I guess I don't think of "statist" as a dirty word. So a moderate-ish, technocratic europe-style statist vs some puppet mouthing platitudes and charging us off to a needless war? Sounds like a big step up to me.
I voted for Obama because of his ability to build consensus. The winning of many seats for the Democratic party in the House and Senate worried me, though, because it would mean that consensus wouldn't be as necessary to pass policies and laws through that would have a partisan edge. Then I started hoping that Obama would expand that consensus to include the people of the country and the liberal and conservative media machine. Hopefully he does.
I'm heartened by the fact that he and his administration will emphasize deliberation equally as much as haste and speed, however. That leads me to believe that consensus of all parties involved (including those who make the law and decisions and those who are affected by the law and decisions made by the government).
Obama, please remain "post-partisan" or loyal to your base (the people of this country as communicated to over levelled vehicles like the Internet).
Europe is a governmental and economic basket-case, and Obama's preference for "europe-style" is precisely what I don't favor about him.
Guess maybe I haven't looked into it.
What I see is:
*prior to this round of worldwide crisis, the Euro was kicking the dollars ass, which makes me think their economy was perceived as doing pretty well....
*there are some issues now where the strength of the EU as a Union will be tested... for example, the ability to bailout banks is still rather delegated, and unified action is more difficult.
*their Islamic population has been segregated (or segregated itself) off into welfare ghettos and presents more of a cultural and safety challenge than Moslems we have in our country.
Other than those kind of things, I haven't heard what qualifies them as "basket case"