If Britons elected the US president, it’d be a landslide for Obama

Brexit & Foreign Policy

A survey of global attitudes towards Barack Obama's presidency reveals ebbing enthusiasm for his policies, yet overwhelming European support for a second term.

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New research by Pew International shows that, across Europe, citizens overwhelmingly back Barack Obama’s re-election:

“There is still considerable support for his re-election in many countries, especially in Europe.

“Roughly nine-in-ten in France (92%) and Germany (89%) would like to see him re-elected, as would large majorities in Britain (73%), Spain (71%), Italy (69%) and the Czech Republic (67%).”

Although the percentage of Britons holding a broadly favourable view of the United States has declined by nine points over the course of Obama’s first term, a solid 60% majority retains such a view.

Moreover, 80% of Britons have confidence in Obama’s presidency: only 16% said the same of George W. Bush in 2008.

The latter figure, alongside the strong pan-European support for his reelection, suggests genuine support for Obama in and of himself, as opposed to a pragmatic preference for him over Mitt Romney.

However, the report does show that the global perceptions of Barack Obama – in particular on specific issues –  reveals that worldwide approval of Obama has declined significantly over the past four years:

“In nearly every country where trends are available, support for Obama’s international policies has declined over the last three years“,

“On a number of specific issues, there is a sense that Obama has not lived up to the expectations people had for him when he first took office.”

These include climate change, relations between Israel and the Palestinians, and multilateral foreign policy.

On the final issue:

“there remains a widespread perception that the U.S. acts unilaterally and does not consider the interests of other countries”.

The use of drone strikes as a major counter-terrorist strategy emerges as a particular concern, with over 50% of respondents in 17 out of 20 countries featured in the research opposing their use.

See also:

• Cold War era tensions re-emerge as US accuse Russia of arming Syrian government 13 June 2012

• One year on from slaying Bin Laden, Obama heralds “new chapter” in Afghanistan 2 May 2012

• Barack Obama’s 2012 4 January 2012

• Obama mocks the mad Right and makes the case for the State 9 September 2011

• President Obama’s state visit: Round-up from America 25 May 2011

 

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17 Responses to “If Britons elected the US president, it’d be a landslide for Obama”

  1. Mark

    73% of Brits support an Obama reelection: http://t.co/NyJx0B2y << Interesting from @BenPhillips1989

  2. David Skelton

    73% of Brits support an Obama reelection: http://t.co/NyJx0B2y << Interesting from @BenPhillips1989

  3. Lord Blagger

    Back to the lies about government debts.

    If you don’t tell people about the 230,000 pounds of debt that you’ve left as a legacy for them to pay off, with interest, they aren’t going to be able to come to a considered decision.

    Same with Obama, He’s telling porkies too about the US government writing itself IOUs to make it pensions (social security) solvent. That’s doesn’t make it solvent any more than you writing yourself an IOU makes you rich.

  4. Simon Evans

    MT @leftfootfwd If Britons elected the US president, it'd be a landslide for Obama http://t.co/xenq9aE9 > most know sweet FA about the US

  5. sdog

    MT @leftfootfwd If Britons elected the US president, it'd be a landslide for Obama http://t.co/xenq9aE9 > most know sweet FA about the US

Comments are closed.