There is a second race for the White House. European leaders are falling over themselves in the quest to be first to pay homage to America’s president-elect. The unabashed obsequiousness is more than faintly pathetic. It speaks to a failure of understanding. Barack Obama won the presidency by promising change; Europe looks stranded in the past.

It is hard to exaggerate the mix of excitement and anxiety Mr Obama’s victory has generated in the chancelleries of Europe: excitement because of the opportunity to repair the transatlantic ruptures of recent years; anxiety because no one knows who, and, critically, at what price, this rock star of global politics may choose as a favourite ally.