If any criticism, no matter how mild, constitutes 'bashing', then, I suppose Romney's comment was bashing. But seriously, it's pretty mild stuff compared what one can find in European media. Bush is routinely compared to Hitler, etc.

A plain reading of the text of the Bill of Rights shows that it is designed to *protect* religion, not suppress it. Even though I am an agnostic Unitarian-Universalist child of the Enlightenment, it is impossible not to acknowledge that America started as, and still is, a religious nation with a secular government, whereas most European countries are, or aspire to be, secular countries and secular governments.

Hence the French headscarf ban, which was entirely consistent with Republican ideas, could never happen in America. The closest we could come to that would be to require headscarfs to be removed for ID photos or in a police line-up. The justification for this is strictly limited to the practical requirement of an ID photo. There is (so far...) no national ID card system in the US, and the individual state ID's remain optional.

"Europeans still take their Enlightenment seriously enough not to put it in quote marks" This is a false dichotomy. In my opinion, the genius of the Enlightenment includes pluralism, that societies need not have to have a single, all-encompassing set of values. Romney takes the Enlightenment seriously, he just sees it as a secular philosophy governing secular affairs, and not an all-encompassing world-view. Enlightenment ideals permit a strictly secular society, such as France, but they don't require it.

Besides, I'll believe that Europe has returned to its Enlightenment roots when it gets over the obsession against "Frankenfoods" i.e. Genetically Modified (GM) foods. There are sane arguments for or against GM foods, but a reasoned debate about whether the benefits outweigh the risks is a long way from the typical European rhetoric. Fluoridated water wasn't a commie plot, and GM foods are not a capitalist plot.

@Joerg: You are correct, Germany does a much better job at speaking out against this sort of comparison than elsewhere in Europe.

In my defense, I wrote that European media routinely compare, not that German national political figures routinely compare. I still think I could support my original statement quite easily, but I prefer to withdraw it. You are right, it is a silly game. I should have resisted Godwin's Law more forcefully.

The point was, Romney's criticism was a fairly mild one, and not at all ad-hominem, although apparently it touched a nerve. Whereas, a lot of the European anti-American sentiment is quite harsh, and too often, is directed at Bush as a person.

Maybe Romney has been harsh elsewhere, but I see nothing in the quotes in the article cites that rises to the level of "bashing". Calling it that seems like a pitiful attempt to sell newspapers.

Maybe it is a language thing - maybe "bashing" is emerging as a sort of slang word that merely means "criticism"?

My larger point was that religion plays a much different role in the US that it does in Europe. When Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he governed as a moderate, not a theocrat. When he ran the 2002 Winter Olympics, people of all religions, or none at all, were welcome.

Our evangelical President Carter on a Saturday night was more devout than Mitt Romney on a Sunday morning! Europeans have nothing to fear from Romney's religion.

And no, I am not a Romney supporter in the coming election. I live in Michigan, but am too young to remember when Romney's father was our Governor.