Global opinions on Obama

Adam Smith at The Inquiring Mind blogs on confidence in Obama in 25 different countries, and notes that despite his Cairo speech (cited as part of the rationale for the Nobel Peace Prize), he still ranks negatively in the Muslim world.

As always am interested in the raw data. The question asked was whether they were confident Obama would do the right thing in world affairs. His net (positive less negative) are:

  1. Kenya +89%
  2. Germany +88%
  3. France + 83%
  4. Canada +79%
  5. Nigeria +78%
  6. UK +76%
  7. Japan +76%
  8. South Korea +69%
  9. India +68%
  10. Brazil +56%
  11. US + 50%
  12. Spain +50%
  13. +49%
  14. Poland +41%
  15. Argentina +35%
  16. Mexico +22%
  17. Russia -3%
  18. Lebanon -4%
  19. Egypt -5%
  20. Israel -13%
  21. -19%
  22. Jordan -27%
  23. Pakistan -38%
  24. China -39%
  25. Palestine -52%

So Russia, Muslim countries and China not persuaded yet.

Another question asks about overall favourability of the US, and tracks it from 1999. The data below shows the change between 2009 and 2008 (or 2007 if not polled in 2008) which presumably reflects the Obama effect.

  1. France +33%
  2. Germany +33%
  3. Indonesia +26%
  4. Spain +25%
  5. Mexico +22%
  6. UK +16%
  7. Argentina +16%
  8. Nigeria +15%
  9. Brazil +14%
  10. Canada +13%
  11. India +10%
  12. Japan +9%
  13. South Korea +8%
  14. Jordan +6%
  15. China +6%
  16. Egypt +5%
  17. Lebanon +4%
  18. US +4%
  19. Kenya +3%
  20. Palestine +2%
  21. Turkey +2%
  22. Poland -1%
  23. Russia -2%
  24. Pakistan -3%
  25. Israel -7%

So Obama has had US favourability rise greatly in Western Europe and South America. Asia had had a modest improvement, and Middle East countries a very small improvement only.

One thing I found interesting is that the US under Bush had a 87% favourability rating amongst Kenyans. Bush actually delivered huge aid to Africa.

The 2010 data will be interesting.

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