"So one thing Kerry may be able to do differently is to re-establish support from Europe to take some of the burden from the U.S. financially and militarily. I think the fact is that Bush has taken the great sympathy for the U.S. after 911, and turned it to antipathy in much of the world."

Howdy, md55. Welcome home.
You make some good points, but the above paragraph I will choose to take exception with.
European countries will not pick up the banner in Iraq if Kerry wins the election. NATO is irrelevant now that the Russians have joined it - they were the reason NATO was created in the first place. As the EU progresses the US will become less important to Europe in every way, IMO.

European countries are not as militarily capable as we are, even when their interests do happen to coincide with our own. Neither is it easy to get the military units from different countries to operate together as one - especially if there are language differences involved. And when accidents happen, it harms relations betwen those countries.

And, after 9-11 there was some real sympathy directed towards the US, but by the time the Winter Olympics rolled around the following year - it was gone.