It's Official: The World Wants Obama

September 10, 2008
It's Official: The World Wants Obama
Posted by Warren Strobel - McClatchy blog

The "world," of course, does not get a vote in the U.S. presidential election. And the fact that global public opinion is trending Sen. Barack Obama's way is hardly a huge surprise. It confirms our own soundings in our foreign travels and talks with foreign diplomats in Washington and elsewhere.

(We could speculate all day as to why this might be true. President Bush is deeply unpopular throughout much of Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. Views of the United States have darkened dramatically during Bush's tenure. Then there's the fact that Obama is an African-American with family ties to Kenya and Indonesia, which makes him appealing to many foreigners).

Nonetheless, data is data, and two new polls released Wednesday show that large swaths of foreign audiences favor Democrat Obama to win over GOP nominee Sen. John McCain.

The first poll, sponsored by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and four other organizations, found that 69 percent of Europeans surveyed had a favorable view of Obama, compared with 26 percent who viewed McCain favorably.

Moreover, 47 percent believed relations between the United States and Europe would improve if Obama is elected. Just about the same percentage--49 percent--thought relations would stay the same if McCain wins the big prize.

The survey questioned roughly 1,000 people in the United States and 12 European countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria. Check it out. There's a lot more there on US/European views of what are the most important global challenges.

A second poll, done for the BBC World Service in conjunction with the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, found that majorities in EVERY ONE of 22 countries surveyed favored Obama over McCain. The average overall was 49 percent for Obama, 12 percent for McCain and (beating McCain) 21% who had no opinion or said it would make no difference.

The countries surveyed were all across the planet, including Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East, Africa and Australia. The largest majorities favoring Obama were in Kenya--not surprisingly--with 89%; Italy with 76% and France with 69%. Interestingly, there was no country where a majority thought a McCain presidency would worsen relations -- most just seemed to think they wouldn't improve.

None of this means that Obama would have an easy ride in foreign affairs if elected, and McCain a nightmare. It seems more likely that a President McCain would have some convincing to do, while a President Obama would encounter expectations so high he could never hope to meet them.

All this made me recall an interview I once did with a senior Arab diplomat, whose name shall go unmentioned here. He argued, half seriously, that since the United States has such a huge impact on virtually everyone else in the world, foreigners should get some percentage of the votes for U.S. president. I listened politely, thinking, Yeah, good luck with that.