"The disappointment that all Americans may be harboring over the Obama term is nothing compared with the garland-wrenching grief in Europe."

"It’s not the disappointment; it’s the hope we can’t bear."

Garland-wrenching? I don't know. It's an op-ed in the NYT by one A.A. Gill. A Brit, perhaps.

Mr. Obama’s coolness, his inability or unwillingness to project warmth, to compliment those who felt insecure, or for whom a pat on the back or a mention, a mere mention, would mean a great deal, is the most inexplicable snub seen from Europe....

Sounds nuttily needy, but here's the crux of it:

In Europe, the gamut of electable politicians is pretty much the same in every country, but there is no European equivalent to the Republican Party, not until you get to Hungary or Serbia. Democrats would partially overlap with conservatives or Christian Democrats here, but the absence of any sort of electable socialist movement in America is a constant subject of incomprehension. We believe the left wing is always a necessary element in the balance of democracy.

And that's what you're wrenching your garland about? Wrench away, wretch.