Who cares.

I remember reading an article that said 60% of people in Europe wanted America to be weaker.

This is wonderful. More than anything, I want to be well liked. More than I want to be free, more than I want my liberty, I want the people of the world to think well of my country!

I don't put too much stock into it, it says the US is 81% Obama - this is more a reflection of Economist readers rather than anything else.

BTW: people who care about our global reputation look at it from a perspective of national security and international power and influence - the more allies you have the closer you can keep track of your enemies and the more influence you have in doing what you want to do and making others do what you want to do.

Dismissing international opinion seems more juvenile then caring about it when we look at it in that light.

zeze!

Excellent zeze.

Zeze, I don't dismiss international opinion entirely, but I think some people put too much stock in it. It should not decide your vote, and it should not decide your opinions. But I agree that it is important to be aware of it and take it into consideration.

I think it is important when we are just ONE nation among many to maintain good relations with each other. This is of course not always possible, and I am not saying to give in to countries just so that we will be better liked, but I dont think anyone is saying that here.. we are part of an international community not some isolated country unaffected by other nations

Love it. No surprises here.

I think it's important that other nations know they can trust the U.S. to keep it's word so that they continue to trade with us. They also need to know that we will only use our military in our own defense, so that they don't try to make the first strike(I think this is the part we're currently lacking). Other than that, I don't care if our policies give them the warm fuzzies, or if they think they'd like to live here.

So couldn't one person sit and vote repeatedly?

Mich, I've read enough posts by you to know you are smarter than that - but your post reflects the opinion of a lot of people who are just as silly as those who think if France doesn't like us and if the French don't dream about coming to live here we are failure as a nation. Too many people think that it is cool everyone hates us, it makes us meaner and stronger and tougher - and caring about anyones attention makes us weak, like the world is high school and we want to be the "bad boy."

My response was more frustration at those people, who take your comment to its extreme then to you personally.

Thanks Steph and Jude - I am glad my ignoring class and coming on CS is appreciated

>BTW: people who care about our global reputation look at it from a perspective of national security and international power and influence - the more allies you have the closer you can keep track of your enemies and the more influence you have in doing what you want to do and making others do what you want to do.

Dismissing international opinion seems more juvenile then caring about it when we look at it in that light.

Agreed, zeze! I don't care if the Germans let me sit at their lunch table. I don't get why international opinion gets dismissed. If we're a very unpopular nation, don't leaders of other countries have incentive to not cooperate with us to earn political points?

Mich, I imagine that plenty of the results shown here come as a result of thinking such as what you described--people deciding that Obama would make a more trustworthy leader and one less likely to run around unlaterally blowing sh!t up--than simply out of "warm fuzzies" People in other countries tend to decide which American to support based on their own countries' self-interest.

*"Unilaterally," not "unlaterally," I meant.

Jude, I think you're right, especially about the self-interest part. I just hope everybody recognizes that people abroad aren't thinking about whether Obama will protect American liberty, they're just thinking about his international policy. Of course, it doesn't mean they're right about either person's international policy.

Honestly, I don't trust Obama or McCain to use our military wisely. One wants to continue in Iraq indefinitely, and the other just wants to spread the war around.

"I think it's important that other nations know they can trust the U.S. to keep it's word so that they continue to trade with us..."

Exactly - there are many, many things that affect international opinion of the US, and I wouldn't think that this kind of poll would give an accurate picture of an incredibly complex situation.

FYI - Canada just negotiated a trade agreement with France in anticipation that Obama will become President and strike down NAFTA. That's one example of how the world is reacting to our Presidential election - and I wouldn't say this is a positive for us.

I also predict that the current world economic crisis might make us even more unloved. Doh!

Well, at least the United States is "too big to fail," so they'll have to bail us out, right?

>...and the other just wants to spread the war around.

Wait, what? Obama wants to spread the war around? The only thing I can think you might be referring to is his desire to redirect resources in Afghanistan, but we're already there, so I don't see how that would be spreading.

What am I missing?

TS, during the debates he said he was going to send troops to wherever injustice to the people is. He even said he was going into Pakistan.

Yeah, because why would other countries want an EXPERIENCED leader for America when they can have someone with NO experience that they can manipulate! Silly me.

I did a bit of traveling in the last month or so, and everyone I met, save one person, was rooting for Obama. (The one who didn't was an elderly French woman who said that she would never want to see a black man running the United States. I nicknamed her Racist Grizzle.) That's just anecdotal evidence, but it was interesting to see how closely people in Europe and Central America were following our election. Regardless of who wins the election next week, his administration's decisions will have huge influences all over the world.

Yeah cause you know...Obama doesn't have a mind of his own. He got to where he is by a fluke. Oh no, wait...my bad, he's got here cause he's black. We just want to see a black man as President so we can prove that we have moved past slavery and racism once and for all.

You're right, Bella.

Mykie - I love your avatar!

Bella, for one thing "Racist Grizzle" is funny.

And two, that is so crazy how other countries follow our elections so closely. Whenever I listen to the BBC I'm always amazed at how much of the coverage is about the U.S.

When it looked like McCain had it in the bag a few months ago the prevailing opinion from the other side of the world was this is more of the same which is fine because we know how to deal with this guy, we've just had 8 years of the same party.
Then he announced Palin as his running mate.
Many of my friends both in Australia and abroad suddenly sat up and took notice of this election.
The thought of someone like her being in such a position of power has scared a lot of people outside of the US.
As for the media painting Obama in a positive light, I read papers from Australia and the UK and I would say that the coverage for both candidates has been fairly even.
Palin however...

TS that's because you're listening to BBC worldwide. My sister who lives in London was just visiting me and said we get much more US news coverage than they do.

Oooh. That makes sense. I always thought it seemed weird.

There's also BBC America.

Okay, now you're all just making me feel sheepish. I just checked, and it appears I've been (half)listening to BBC World Service and PRI's The World, co-produced by the BBC, PRI, and WGBH.

Hmmm ceej I just thought it was because we are an extremely egocentric nation whose majority doesn't care for world news and considers our children learning a second language in primary school to be on paar with the apocalypse...

Haha, Jessie. That we are.

I think it's when our govts follow your govt into a war that was unwarranted and were lied to.
I always felt our own prime minister at the time was a completely obsequious weasel who would have followed Bush into hell. Or rather, send our troops there.
But I did feel sorry for Blair who started out so hopefully in Britain and left under such a cloud.
Your egocentric comment made me laugh. I think my own country is parochial and egocentric too.
I don't get why only 8% of you have passports but maybe if they introduced those languages in primary school (my kids learnt 3) the population might get out more.

Ceej, it's really expensive to leave the U.S. unless you live right next to Canada or Mexico, and you don't need a passport just to cross over the border.

ceej...where are you from?

In high school, they only offered Spanish and FRench. I opted for French and did 3 years of it. That was about 7 years ago since my last class and I'm really rusty on the francais(sorry, I didn't put the accent). It wasn't that great of a program anyway. One day I want to learn to speak it fluently, Spanish also and a couple others, including Hindi.

You do now, actually! It's being phased in. Like now you need it if you fly, next year you'll need it by sea. I think driving/walking is that last thing that will switch, but my memory's fuzzy.

I only recently got my passport. Now I'll need to start filling it up!

As someone who lives 24 hours away from everywhere I can honestly say it is much more expensive to travel from here.
It is a right of passage for a huge percentage of young people to travel and work OS for 2 years after high school in this country.
Traditionally they travel to the UK but the visa has now been extended to the US so you can expect an influx of young Australians waiting on your table in the near future!

Got to love day trips to Mexico. I'm from LA. My comment about for language had less to do with travel and more to do with opportunities.

People get so up in arms about foreign language here. Most kids in other countries, who attend school, learn their native language and either an international language (english, german, chinese, french, spanish, etc...) or their neighboring languages (ie Scandinavians often learn danish, swedish, icelandic, etc..). It helps with jobs and immigration.

Are most parents even aware that most colleges require two years of a foreign language as a prerequisite for school. I've learned an additional language since coming to college (and I'm horrible at it) and I want to learn another because I've realized the wealth of cultural knowledge you acquire as well as job opportunities and potential movement. It wouldn't kill our kids to learn a neighboring language such as Spanish or French.

Wow that rant was way off topic ...
Clearly a pet peeve.

Oh, Ceej, you're Australian! I was thinking you were from the UK.

TS, I was actually talking about driving through the border. I did it about a year ago and I didn't need a passport.

Yeah, I think driving is still a year or so off. But they just announced all the changes within the past year or so. You used to not even need it to fly.

Well I bet we'll see at least a slight increase in passport numbers when that change takes effect. Is it a Homeland Security thing?

"Traditionally they travel to the UK but the visa has now been extended to the US so you can expect an influx of young Australians waiting on your table in the near future!"

VERY awesome.

Thats what I was thinking. What a cool right of passage.

Yes.

I just googled it, I guess all the rules will be in place bye June 1, 2009. I guess there may be "enhanced" driver's licenses that may be able to sub in for land crossings.

There was, I believe, a rush to get passports when they first started talking about this almost two years ago. (I lived in a border state ten, I recall it being on the news a lot.)