FRASCATI, Italy — By and large, the Italian people are a friendly and caring people, for the most part courteous and hospitable to tourists, who make up a large part of the Italian economy.Half of the world’s historic and artistic heritage is located in Italy, according to UNESCO, and help contribute to Italy’s rank as the No. 8 economy in the world (Rome will host the next G-8 Summit in July).But this hardly exempts them from criticism, especially when it comes to politics. As many are probably aware, Europe’s fascination with Obama, and by extension the American left, borders on a bizarre and unwarranted obsession.On our way back to our hotel one night, a small group of us were approached by some young Italian men. As Americans, we stuck out like sore thumbs, and these guys were well aware.”Obama!” one of them exclaimed with two thumbs up. “Berlusconi!” he added, thumbs still up, referring to the Italian prime minister.The Europe Union was on the eve of European Parliamentary elections at the time, and Berlusconi’s party was widely expected to do well, though he would be disappointed by a strong conservative showing later that weekend.After witnessing this young man’s understandable affection for a promising American president, I was more shocked than appalled when he said, “The U.S. is going down.”How one could be complimentary of and hopeful for the new administration while expressing what I interpreted as a desire to see that same administration fail was beyond me. Apparently, this guy forgot that all those Coca-Colas, McDonald’s cheeseburgers and American music, movies and TV shows are examples of American strength — to say nothing of the war being fought in Afghanistan by Americans, which is helping to enforce European security.But the theater of American politics takes backstage to Italian political drama. To summarize the state of affairs surrounding Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would be inadequate, but as a recent New York Times reporter said of Italian politics:”In other words, imagine a world in which Donald Trump owns NBC and lives in the White House, while grooming Miss California USA to run for Congress, and you may be half way to understanding Italian politics.”Daniel Lumetta is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Metairie.—-Contact Daniel Lumetta at [email protected]