Pew Research has released a poll comparing the confidence people place in McCain versus Obama in 22 different nations across the world. Obama leads in 21 of the 22, with McCain leading by 1 point in Jordan.
Among Western European countries, our longtime allies who had lost confidence in the US, Obama is favored by overwhelming numbers. In France, 84% of those polled have confidence in Obama as opposed to only 33% for McCain. In Germany, it’s 82% - 33%. In Australia, 81-40. In Japan, 77-40. In Britain, 74-44. In Spain, 72-19. And so on.
For debate: is it that people the world over favor Obama because of his superior intelligence, calm demeanor, and inspirational message, or do they simply lack confidence in McCain because of his confusion over the issues and his reckless threats to start wars?
You could be right, but McCain’s surrogates are spinning this by saying that Americans don’t care what Europeans think, and dismissing it by saying that Europeans don’t vote in our elections. This signals me that McCain is beyond incompetent — he’s dangerous.
Unfortunately, that plays well with a lot of people. Even plenty of folk here on the Dope take the attitude that foreign nations’ opinions should not be considered when electing a president or deciding policy, and that’s the more reasonable stance in that vein.
At another time, I might even agree that international opinion isn’t a big factor. But our economy is doing terribly in large part thanks to the low confidence other nations have in us right now. That’s why the dollar is tanking, after all. An administration that can cooperate with foreign nations would go a long, long way to stabilizing things again.
Agreed. I would ask those who participate to do as I did in the OP and present both sides, for the sake of fairness. (Note how I made no attempt to hide McCain’s lead in Jordan.)
I think most of the goodwill towards Obama is simply because he opposes the war in Iraq, which we’re all sick of, and because he isn’t a warmonger. There may be some that want a Democrat in power because they feel he would be better for the environment and the much more important ‘war’ against global climate change too.
I don’t think many people care what colour his skin is… Other than thinking it makes him impossible to elect, of course.
Does any American change his vote because of studies like this? They shouldn’t, of course, but I get the feeling people are more likely to vote against the wishes of the rest of the world out of spite or prejudice.
I see a business plan here. We could set up a website to sell our votes to non-Americans who care about the outcome of our election. It would be a fascinating economic experiment to find out how much 1 American vote is worth to the rest of the world.
This article actually sums up, at least in Egypt, why many support Obama and more importantly what it means to the image of America. They are actually amazed that somebody like Obama could be President of the United States, someone named Hussein, someone with a Kenyan father who was Muslim.
I think Obama’s international appeal is one of the strongest reasons to vote or him. It goes beyond just normal, international default to the left (just like it does among center-left Americans). The ability of the son of a Kenyan immigrant to rise, entirely through his own merits, to the highest office in the US would resurrect the image of America as a place of opportunity, diversity, tolerance and meritocracy – images which have badly been damaged over the last 8 years. It shows them we have not all turned into elitist, Americo-centric assholes and gives us the chance to repair some of the very bad blood which Bush has created.
I agree…or at least it is certainly a point in his favor.
While I agree America (or any country really) should not base its political decisions on foreign popularity polls neither do I think it is a point that should be ignored. We live in a global economy and it is a smaller world all the time. How our president might get along with other countries is very germane to how we should assess who the best person for that job is. Hell, it is one of the prime responsibilities of the office.
While I’m sure Bush excels at charming other world leaders, Obama has the potential to charm local populations to some degree. Of course, the language barrier probably makes the audience he reaches a small one, but every little bit of positive propaganda helps.
Every single fellow Canadian I know personally wants Obama to win, and every one of them will say it’s because 1. They want a candidate who is as different as possible from George W. Bush, and 2. Obama is very, very different from George W. Bush, in that he does not appear to be an ignorant, stubborn warmonger. Most don’t know about McCain’s confusions or threats and don’t care; all that matters to them is that McCain was endorsed by Bush.
I don’t think anyone I know would have cared if the Republicans had nominated Huckabee, Romney, Thompson or whomever; all that matters is that they’re Republicans.
Obama’s tremendous charisma absolutely DOES help, but I have no doubt most Canadians would be rooting for a Clinton or Edwards victory had they been the nominee.
I have to say, here in Australia, among the people I encounter at least, I have noticed a lot of positive opinion of Obama and some unsure to negative leaning opinions on McCain.
We’ve had several discussions in the last few weeks in my politics course at university about our personal preferences regarding Obama and McCain. The vast majority of our class were pro-Obama (This is pretty much reflected in the opinions of my friends, family, co-workers, etc.).
Those of us who preferred Obama professed that they felt him trustworthy, intelligent, a ‘nice’ person. Few people said that they supported him because of any particular issue or political stance. When McCain was discussed, only a few people were outright negative about him - it was more that people did not feel very positive towards him. Many expressed surprise that McCain was ‘the best the Republicans could come up with’.
I do not think Bush charms any leaders of any country. At least I seem to recall (I think) Andrea Merkel practically jumping out of her skin all grossed out when Bush touched her on the shoulder. I also seem to recall some European leaders making a point to note they hate Bush and would oppose him as a way to garner support for their election. It’s been awhile though so if you want cites I will try to look them up but I have never heard Bush described as being able to charm anyone.
Well, if she is going to go around showing off that not-entirely-safe-for-work rack she should be ready for catcalls, wolf whistles, and near-boob-grabs by world leaders.
I agree. I would expect a similar poll taken in 2004 would have proven that Kerry “inspires the world”. And Gore in 2000. This has little to do with Obama and much to do with Democrats vs Republicans in a world that is largely to the left of the US.
Also, note that the difference in appeal between McCain and Obama is highest in Western European Countries, which are still our staunch allies, despite Bush, and much lower in the M.E., where Bush’s policies have supposedly created more enemies.
