Re: USA Elections: Candidates Comparison
The Global Presidential Poll
Discover the world view of the U.S. Presidential election, find out which global issue rates as important and more.
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Global Poll Finds Obama Preferred in All Countries But U.S.
A new global poll of 17 countries finds a huge preference for Barack Obama over John McCain in the presidential election in 16 of those countries. In the 17th country -- the U.S. -- McCain was edging out Obama.
Barack Obama's proclamation last July to being a "citizen of the world" was affirmed Monday as a new poll -- taken before the August conventions -- showed that in 16 out of 17 countries surveyed he was the overwhelming choice to be the next president of the United States.
The lone country to prefer a John McCain presidency: the U.S.
The Reader's Digest magazine poll, released Monday, asked 17,000 people in 17 countries, including the U.S., whom they would like to see elected president.
The poll also found that, counter to Obama's claims that America's reputation abroad is taking a beating, half of the 16 countries surveyed offered strong "pro-American" sentiments.
Obama's favorability ratings soared in Brazil, Taiwan, Germany -- the site of his "citizen of the world" pronouncement -- and the Netherlands, where support for the Illinois senator exceeded 90 percent. The Reader's Digest poll findings are consistent with other international polls conducted this year on the presidential race.
A BBC poll released Sept. 10, for instance, found that Obama was preferred 4-to-1 on average across 22,000 people surveyed in 22 foreign countries.
But in the U.S., Obama's pre-convention margin of support was dramatically smaller, revealing stark differences in his national and international perception, according to the Reader's Digest survey. In fact, before the conventions, the poll showed McCain holding a 38-36 percent lead over his Democratic opponent.
The latest polls conducted in the U.S. in recent weeks show that lead disappearing, with Obama now holding a 50-42 percent lead over McCain in the Gallup daily tracking poll out Monday.
In a FOX News-Opinion Dynamics poll released Wednesday Obama held the lead -- 45 percent to 39 percent -- over McCain. A new FOX News/Rasmussen Reports poll of key swing states is due out Monday.
An international preference poll conducted by Pew last June also showed McCain led Obama domestically -- 60-59 percent -- among respondents expressing confidence in the candidate. Confidence in Obama over McCain surged in countries such as France, Germany and Australia.
It was in Germany last July 24 that Obama proclaimed to a wildly enthusiastic crowd in Berlin that he was "a fellow citizen of the world."
Reader's Digest Washington Bureau Chief Carl Cannon cited various reasons for the disparity, noting that many of the Republican Party's core positions are irrelevant to individuals overseas.
"The Republican Party is not organized around the notion of running for election anywhere but the United States," Cannon told FOXNews.com. "A number of Republican issues, including defending the Second Amendment or opposition to abortion, simply are not salient questions in Europe."
Cannon cited President Bush's low approval ratings as another disadvantage to McCain's international reputation.
"John McCain comes from the same party as Bush, and is considered just as hawkish on Iraq," he said.
The prospect of an African-American president was yet another factor in Obama's overwhelming approval rating abroad, according to Cannon, who said that "people abroad are inspired" by his historic candidacy.
The Reader's Digest poll also found striking differences in attitudes towards Americans.
When asked, "Do you consider yourself pro-American, neutral or anti-American?" half of the 16 countries expressed more "pro-American" than "anti-American" sentiments, despite unpopular opinions on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Cannon told FOXNews.com that this finding was inconsistent with the Democrats' claim that most of the world detests the U.S. because of the Bush administration's unfavorable foreign policies.
"What this shows is that people in the world still care about America and still look to America," he said. "They might care about the Iraq war, but they don't judge us based solely on that issue."
Anti-American attitudes were highest among those surveyed in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Spain and Canada.
India and South Africa were the countries with the most positive opinions about the U.S.
Respondents in 16 out of 17 countries said they were more likely to expect their view of the U.S. to improve if Obama is elected president. South Africa was the only foreign country where a McCain victory would have a slightly more positive impact on their image of the U.S.
In response to a question about whether interviewees would consider moving to the U.S., respondents in India expressed the strongest interest -- 73 percent -- as did the majority of participants in South Africa, the Netherlands and France.
Respondents in Poland, Russia, Indonesia and Australia were least likely to consider the move, according to the poll.
The 16 foreign countries also varied greatly in the amount of attention given to the U.S. presidential election. Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Australia, and South Africa were among those countries that have generated the most interest in the election, while Brazil, Poland, Russia, India and Taiwan have paid the least attention.
Speaking of which, I was drinking buddies at Stanford with a guy who is now one of the five members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh. No joke: we used to help each other with problem sets in economics courses. Warsh is a smart guy, and has spent almost his entire professional career rising quickly through the ranks at Morgan Stanley. Still, I'm a little nervous that he's one of the guys responsible for saving the world economy, since I've seen him in drunken idiot mode.