Which European can compete with Obama?

Barack Obama's victory will certainly be celebrated in progressive Europe... although quite a few more middle of the road "liberals" might have preferred Hillary Clinton, someone they pretend to know better and who would have been expected to re-establish the friendly atmosphere that prevailed during the two mandates of her husband.
However this emergence of a post-racial, cosmopolitan, intellectual, candidate presents Europe with a real challenge. In the battle for soft power Obama might quickly regain the ground that was lost by George W. Bush and overtake Europe, a continent adrift, deprived of a real project, and riven by bitter rivalries and contradictory ambitions.
The Old Continent has some attractive personalities, on the left with Spanish Premier José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, on the right with German chancellor Angela Merkel, but it also has disturbing politicians, in the first place Italian “numero uno” Silvio Berlusconi who has included in his government ultraconservative and populist characters. Most of its leaders however are either too controversial (read President Sarkozy) or too boringly "grey" (Gordon Brown?).
When the Lisbon treaty is ratified and the EU will choose its president and its foreign minister, when its renews the Commission, it will be well advised to propose really inspiring personalities.
Who in Europe could compete in charm and change with Barack Obama? When George Bush will retire to his ranch in Crawford the “progressive transatlantic link” might be weak, this time, in Europe... History has a tendency of waltzing off the beat.