Struggling German SPD searches for its "Obama"

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Can Germany's Social Democrats find a Barack Obama of their own to revive their party?

At a recent rally in Nuremberg, Hubertus Heil, the deputy leader in the struggling SPD, tried to inject a bit of the charisma and can-do spirit of the Democratic presidential candidate by asking delegates to chant: "Yes, we can".

It didn't go down well.

After a moment of mumbled 'Yes, Vee Kahn", the English chants fizzled out. But since that rally in late May, German media and dispirited members of the centre-left SPD, which has slumped to post-war lows in opinion polls, have been asking: "Where's our Obama?"

Some on the left think Berlin's popular Mayor Klaus Wowereit might be the best hope to give the SPD a lift in the way Obama's historic candidacy has helped boost the U.S. Democrats.

Wowereit, 54, is a few rungs down the ladder from unpopular SPD Chairman Kurt Beck and so would not likely be stepping into the 59-year-old's shoes soon.

Beck himself will decide who runs against Chancellor Angela Merkel as the SPD candidate in the 2009 election -- he has hinted he might not run but instead nominate the popular Foreign Minister, Vice Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

But many in the SPD, which governs with Merkel's conservatives in an awkward "grand coalition", are already looking past the dim prospects of 2009 to the following election in 2013 -- and it's Wowereit's name that keeps coming up.

"Who knows what the situation will be in 2013?" Wowereit said with a wide smile when asked about his ambitions in a recent interview with Reuters.

"This situation right now is that Kurt Beck will decide later this year who will run and I assume he'll be our candidate. And we'll all support him. I was elected as mayor of Berlin to 2011 and right now I'm not looking for another job."

But Wowereit does hope to meet Obama. German media reports have said the U.S. candidate may be planning a trip to Berlin soon and Wowereit has already met an Obama campaign official to discuss a possible visit.

Wowereit is the most popular elected leader in the SPD and the party's most charismatic national figure -- Beck is seen as provincial and wooden while Steinmeier's popularity hinges largely on his senior government role.

But there are no primaries in Germany, no open inner-party competition. It's the party leader's prerogative to pick the candidate. And in German party politics, it would be political suicide for anyone to openly run against the chairman.

'NOT MAYOR FOREVER'

Wowereit is an SPD anomaly -- he is popular and has been re-elected. And despite painful spending cuts in Germany's biggest city to eliminate a deficit he inherited in 2001, his approval ratings remain high in Berlin and nationally.