New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson visited Norway last week looking for foreign investors, and the local media back home reported his trip as a success. According to the El Paso news station KVIA, Richardson had succeeded in convincing Norway's largest energy company StatoilHydro to come to New Mexico to explore investment opportunities, apparently in natural gas.
Stories about Richardson in the Norwegian media, however, centered on the U.S. presidential election and reflected Norway's obsession with Barack Obama. The Norwegian daily Aftenposten quoted Richardson in a headline, "You will like President Obama," and wrote that if Obama pursues a foreign policy similar to the one Richardson outlined in an address to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, "sweet music will again arise between the U.S. and Europe." Adresseavisa, another Norwegian daily, expressed a similar sentiment with the headline, "The World will see a different USA," under an Obama Presidency.
Such effusive coverage is hardly surprising, given Norwegian journalists' well-known affection for Obama. In an April poll of 500 Norwegian journalists, 51 percent said they would prefer Obama as the next U.S. President, 31 percent preferred Hillary Clinton, and only two percent favored John McCain.
This post was written by Ola Ulmo, Transatlantic Media Network Intern
