Poll on US and other's influence

[V7]

Here's an interesting report on a poll showing more positive views of US influence in the world (albeit from a low base):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7324337.stm

The full report is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_04_08_globalview.pdf

and has some very interesting charts further in showing how people in different countries view each other.

[Bartacus]

Can't see anything with those links.

[magerette]

Interesting to see that only North Korea, Pakistan, Israel & Iran are considered worse. I'm sure our numbers will go up once Hillary starts "obliterating" (http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Vote2008/story?id=4698059&page=1) Iran and any other countries that step out of line in the MidEast.:S

[Squeek]

That quote from Clinton about obliterating Iran is unbelievable! Did she really say that?? The article also quoted Obama as having said that he "has to be worried about obliterating his repeated promise of a 'new kind of politics.," and that seems like some sort of typo.

[JemyM]

Overall positive
56 Japan
56 Germany
52 European Union
50 Great Britain
50 France
47 China
44 Brazil
41 India
37 Russia
35 US
23 North Korea
20 Iran
19 Israel
18 Pakistan

Awesome! Go US, go US, improve your reputation a bit more and you may beat russia!

[Ionstormsucks]

Well, when I heard about Clinton and the "we will obliterate Iran" crap, I thought it's a joke, but it obviously isnt... as this video (http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=fUiFcaWxn8o) proves (unless it's fake).

It shows me that she isn't suited to be president.

When it comes to the US position on those polls... you know, the US is better than its reputation. The US are just the bad cop in a good cop/bad cop world police charade with the European Union being the good cop - that doesn't mean that the good cop is not as corrupt as the the bad one, it has just the more thankful job, that's all.

We cannot say how the world would look without the US - I'm not sure it would be better. Despite all its flaws the US is a fascinating country and I feel that there sometimes exists a great hypocrisy in Europe, that likes to see itself as culturally and morally superior. Fact is however that our methods (Europe's) to deal with foreign countries are just more subtle, not less cruel.

[magerette]

Thanks for the kind words, ISS. If the United States was a collection of British, French and Spanish colonies today, I think the world would definitely look quite different. :)

The video isn't a fake as far as I know. Here on a live broadcast on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24246849#24246849), she explains her "umbrella" theory of war escalation, which btw includes "our NATO allies". That ought to cheer you guys up over there. :) (I wouldn't watch that clip though unless you have a high tolerance for politicalspeak at it's most sleep-inducing level.)

@Squeek: you're getting a pm from me, because I see no reason for everybody else to be forced to listen in.

[Squeek]

I just received that PM and guess I should assure everyone that I wasn't being being coy about finding Clinton's quote hard to believe. I'm really that surprised. Has she said anything like that before?

Now that I have the time, I'll take a look at that video. If it's true, I may very well throw my support over to Obama.

EDIT: OK, I watched the video and now think it was a poorly written article. They really should done a better job of putting it into its proper context.

Still....

[V7]

Its a pity the numbers don't go furhter back, I'd have been interested to see how they compared to feelings about America under the Clintion administration.

[Corwin]

Well, we've seen Billary try to obliterate Obama, so why be surprised she'd do the same to anyone or anything that got in her way!!