If President Bush got a warmer reception in Europe than many expected, no doubt it had something to do with the economy. The tremendous differences in economic culture between Europe and America are in sharp relief. The European economic model, it turns out, is not aging gracefully, which is something to bear in mind as we go into the final months of the presidential election here at home.

For over time the Democrats have evolved into the European American party. A taste for extension of unemployment benefits, strong unions, high wage-floors, corporate-employment-as-a-form-of-eternal-life, and central planning have created a Democratic Party that is gradually becoming indistinguishable from the European center-left.

It’s has been odd this past week to recall the days when someone like, say, the French socialist Jacques Delors railed against the alleged savagery of President Reagan’s economic principles. Europe’s largest economy, Germany, just reported that its seasonally adjusted unemployment has risen for the fourth consecutive month. Any political pilgrim looking for “the worst jobs market since Herbert Hoover” can cast his peepers at Deutschland, where the unemployment rate is currently 10.5%.

And it’s the entire Euro Zone. The European unemployment rate has been increasing since September and now stands at 9%. America’s unemployment rate, in contrast, has been dropping, and now stands at 5.6%. There are some differences in the way unemployment is calculated across the jurisdictions, but the trends are still clear.

Economic growth differentials are even more dramatic. Last fall the European economy was only 0.4% larger than it had been the previous fall. By comparison, America had grown 3.6%. That’s nine times faster than Europe’s growth. The pattern holds this year as well — 1.3% for Europe, and 4.95% for George Bush’s America. Our growth outpaced Europe’s by a factor of almost four. We just heard from Norway, whose economic growth rate came in at a glacial 1%, while America grew at a comfortably balmy 4.4%.

Despite dire predictions from the liberal establishment about the ascendancy of the German model and its European-inspired Japanese version, the 1980s turned out to be when America began to place some real distance between itself and the continent. If things continue as they are now, the Europeans will be even more difficult to see through our rearview mirror. That is, unless Euronomics sees a resurgence in America this November.