commentary Never waste a crisis. This is the right time for a New Atlantic Covenant

The president's second term in the White House is an opportunity for Europe and the United States to renew their battered relationship

Carly Fiorina, the formidable boss of Hewlett-Packard, came to Berlin the other day. Addressing a small circle of German VIP’s around the lunch table, she left them with an engrossing piece of advice: “In a process of transformation, never waste a crisis.”

No doubt: in a world dizzy with change, the transatlantic community finds itself in the middle of a profound transformation. And: It is going through a deep crisis.

So why not heed Mrs. Fiorina’s counsel instead of simply letting things ride?

There is no denying the fact that the vast majority of Europeans would have preferred to see Americans send John F. Kerry to the White House. They are realists, however. They recognize that George W. Bush, winning 3.5 million votes more than his challenger, has an incontestable popular mandate this time. So rather than wail and rail, they are prepared to put past quarrels behind them and look forward to the future.

Not that they like everything they see in the States.

For one thing, they are baffled by the demonstration, once again, that the world’s oldest democracy is unable to organize its electoral process in such a way that the results are clear by the break of dawn next morning.

In the same vein, they are puzzled by the tortuous registration process, which lends itself to blatant abuse; by jerrymandering and irregularities of the sort that reminded one commentator of electoral shortcomings in Afghanistan; and by the fact that the field of presidential and vice-presidential candidates appears to be effectively closed to anyone who is not a certified millionaire.