Hillary Clinton Wows Young Europeans

She might have been forgiven for looking a bit worn-out after a week of meetings from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to Nato's charmless headquarters in Brussels.

But Hillary Clinton positively glowed this morning at a Q&A session with a bunch of earnest young Europeans eager to hear how Barack Obama will fix the world.

Between breakfast with the Belgian foreign minister and a pilgrimage to the European Council – and before heading off for dinner in Switzerland with the Russian foreign minister – Clinton found time for a "town hall meeting" with Europe's "next generation".

Clinton was received rapturously. She glad-handed her audience at the vast ­European parliament. People cheered. She waved. They clapped, they craned their necks for a better glimpse, and they gave her a standing ovation.

"Europe is a miracle," Clinton told around 1,000 young high-fliers. "A complex compromise of different interests."

The event was also streamed live to 31 countries, although the Celtic fringes of north-western Europe hogged the questions.

A Welsh girl sought Clinton's support for Welsh, Scottish, and Catalan independence – a nice try that failed. A young Scot worried about Gaza, supplying the chance for Clinton to engage on the intractable topic of Israel and Palestine. An Irish questioner wondered whether an American could ever get to grips with Europe's complexity.

The US secretary of state handled everything with consummate aplomb and authority – although she did admit that she had trouble grasping the mosaic of parties, interests, and countries that make up the EU. "I've never understood multi-party democracy. It's hard enough with two parties."

From Russia to Africa, from climate change to financial crash, from HIV/Aids to gay rights, Clinton wowed the Europeans with a performance that showed fluency and grasp of detail.

The lad in the "I Love Hillary" T-shirt, a gay rights activist from Moldova, extracted a ringing endorsement of his campaign.

"Human rights are the inalienable right of every person no matter who that person loves," Clinton said, adding that attacks on gays and lesbians were not only occurring on a worrying scale, but were being "condoned and protected".

"That was great," crowed the German parliament president, Hans-Gert Pöttering, unable to conceal his delight at hosting the highest-profile American in his parliament since Ronald Reagan visited Strasbourg 24 years ago. He prompted mild guffaws by boasting that the European chamber was "a real and growing power".

Clinton nodded with diplomatic courtesy. But then delivered what might be construed as a dig at the EU's modus operandi.

"Democracies have to be careful that they do not become so process-driven," she observed, "that we are in fact paralyzed."

She indirectly laid into the Bush White House, noting that Washington was 20 years late in trying to tackle climate change and that the new administration would resume the century-old quest to give America a universal healthcare system.

"It's so difficult to do what everyone knows we're gonna have to figure out how to do," as she put it. "We are making up for lost time."

One European observer said: "I'm relieved she didn't get the nomination, she's not as good as Obama. But still, a class act."