Survey: Obama's more popular abroad than at home

[TomCADem]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- A recent international survey shows President Barack Obama's popularity is much higher in many foreign countries than it is in the United States.

And the survey says world opinion of the U.S., which spiked in 2009 when Obama first took office, has generally remained far more positive during Obama's tenure than it was during George W. Bush's presidency.

According to the Pew Research Center's latest Global Attitudes Survey of more than 24,000 people in 22 countries, 79 percent of South Koreans have a favorable image of America. U.S. favorability is at 74 percent in Poland, and at 63 percent in Brazil.

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Across the 22 countries, 63 percent of people expressed confidence in Obama and 58 percent expressed overall approval of his international policies. His ratings were overwhelmingly positive in Europe and in most of the Asian countries surveyed. At home in the U.S., an average of six major polls shows that 48 percent approve of how Obama is handling his job.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/16/global.survey.obama.us/

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These results are funny given that domestically President Obama is simultaneously threatening to nationalize all private industry, as well as privitize the public sector, according the various talking heads in the media.

[tekisui]

1. Except in Muslim countries:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/monitor_breakfast/2010/0617/How-Muslim-world-feels-about-Obama-disappointed

But US favorability and confidence in Obama have slipped in a number of key Muslim-majority countries, the survey finds. In Egypt, those with a positive view of America dropped from 27 percent in 2009 to 17 percent in 2010 – the lowest level in five years (and thus lower than in a number of the years of George W. Bush’s presidency). Support for Obama in Turkey fell by a third, from 33 to 23 percent, and on the whole, Turkey – a NATO ally – sees the US as a potential military threat.

Also according to the survey: Support among Muslim populations for terrorist actions like suicide bombings and for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda continues to wane. But what appears to complicate the view of terrorism and efforts to stop it is when US policy and US leadership is brought into the mix.

“Where we see the lack of support is for the US-led actions” like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said John Danforth, co-chair of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, at the Monitor breakfast. “The more concrete the actions, the less they like the US,” said the former US senator and former US ambassador to the United Nations.

Others cite a perceived lack of follow-through after the Cairo speech as the key factor in the dip America’s numbers took in Muslim countries.

So well done in repairing the damage done by bush with the non-Muslim countries. That was a great turn-around. But, we have lost a great opportunity in the Muslim world.