Given that he is a young, brilliant, relatively inexperienced politician who plans to govern outside the existing party structure, it is inevitable that Macron would be compared to Obama. The analogy really doesn’t work well, however, because:
1. France in 2017 doesn’t resemble the US in 2009. Obama had to deal with acute problems arising from the Great Recession; Macron will have to address chronic French economic and social issues, which is harder.
2. Obama could rely on the support of the existing Democratic Party; Macron has invented a new party. No further elaboration is necessary.
3. Obama was charismatic; Macron is more wonkish. No one has suggested that Macron can move an audience the way Obama can. That will matter as he tries to convince French workers that liberalizing the system is ultimately in their best interests.
4. Obama was a genuine outsider; Macron is an enarque. Macron is the French establishment in a new and fresh package. The only unconventional thing about him is his marriage.