Global poll finds optimism for future U.S. policy

[Greyskye]

Source: Associated Press

People around the globe widely expect the next American president to improve the country's policies toward the rest of the world, especially if Barack Obama is elected, yet they retain a persistently poor image of the U.S., according to a poll released Thursday.

The survey of two dozen countries, conducted this spring by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, also found a growing despondency over the international economy, with majorities in 18 nations calling domestic economic conditions poor. In more bad news for the U.S., people shared a widespread sense the American economy was hurting their countries, including large majorities in U.S. allies Britain, Germany, Australia, Turkey, France and Japan.

Even six in 10 Americans agreed the U.S. economy was having a negative impact abroad.

Views of the U.S. improved or stayed the same as last year in 18 nations, the first positive signs the poll has found for the U.S. image worldwide this decade. Even so, many improvements were modest and the U.S. remains less popular in most countries than it was before it invaded Iraq in 2003, with majorities in only eight expressing favorable opinions.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/06/12/global.poll.ap/index.html

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[HughBeaumont]

1. Yes, this is what happens, kids, when you get a REAL leader in office . . .

Not an "everything for me'n'mah buds" neo-CEO dry drunk Failure Fuhrer who gives the keys to the kingdom to the people who least need them at the expense of everything and everyone else.

Real nations (you know, ones that do that little thing called HELPING THE NEEDIEST NOT THE GREEDIEST) want to think the supposed "World's Most Powerful Nation" would start acting like it and becoming a more benevolent model that moves past the Bewsh debacle of stagnation and one-sidedness.

[melody]

2. Some people will always have a bad image of us

For no reason beyond bias. Bigotry is everywhere.

[AndyTiedye]

3. We are Hurting Their Economies by

not coming to visit often enough?