Obama Remains Popular in Europe, Poll Shows

[Coventina]

Source: Wall Street Journal

BRUSSELS -- Barack Obama is shrinking in popularity at home, but Europeans still give high marks to the American president, according to a public-opinion survey in the European Union, the U.S. and Turkey released Wednesday by the German Marshall Fund.

A record 77% of Europeans approve of Mr. Obama's handling of international affairs, compared with 19% support for former President George W. Bush a year ago. In Germany, Europe's biggest country, the jump was 80 percentage points, the biggest increase in any category in the seven-year history of the survey.

"Beyond the hype about 'Obamamania,' this is a tsunami, a once-in-a-generation bounce in popularity," says Ronald Asmus, executive director of the Fund's Trans-Atlantic Center in Brussels.

The news for Mr. Obama personally is good, but less so for U.S. foreign policy. Europeans remain highly skeptical about America's goals for Afghanistan, the U.S.'s diplomatic pressure involving Iran's nuclear program and American support for Turkey's admission into the EU. "The president has not been able to convert personal popularity into real support for policies," Mr. Asmus says.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125249394556595271.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[Ian David]

1. Just like David Hasselhoff and Jerry Lewis. n/t

[Soylent Brice]

2. you crack me the hell up.

[PeaceDreamer]

3. I wish we had more European type thinkers in the US

Obama deserves credit for making the world like us more.

[Deja Q]

6. Image is everything. Obey your thirst.

:)

[Overseas]

4. Of course he does. Compare and contrast.

Compared with GWB he is wildly popular with me too.

[JonQ]

5. Doesn't seem to be getting us much

liking us is nice, if it leads to greater cooperation. If it only goes as far as voting positively on opinion polls and no farther, well that's less helpful.

[Deja Q]

7. Logical.

[Mike Daniels]

10. Bingo. For all his outreach to overseas allies Obama's ROI is pretty nil

[pampango]

11. What types of "cooperation" have we asked for or expected, and not received? n/t

[T_i_B]

8. He's not high up the RW hate list over here

Despite the best efforts of Dan Hannan to jump on the teabaggers bandwagon, it's certainly the case in Britain that our right-wingers are more likely to have it in for domestic figures such as Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman or Polly Toynbee then Obama.

[LeftishBrit]

9. True. Or if they do look overseas for their targets, 'the EU'.

[T_i_B]

21. I was thinking more of individuals then groups

If we were talking about RW hate of certain institutions or segments of the population we'd be here all day!

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[SouthernDemInAtl]

13. Fuck Europe.....EOM

[pampango]

14. Thanks for the insightful analysis and the facts backing it up.

:(

[LeftishBrit]

16. That must be the most beautiful, articulate, well-argued message that I've EVER read anywhere

[SouthernDemInAtl]

17. No arguing the fact that...

...the Euro-peeons would have lost 2 world wars were it not for the US. So Europe can go to hell in my opinion.

[pampango]

18. At least you gave us some (shallow and militaristic) reasoning this time.

Aside from the fact that the tide had turned against Germany in WWI before most of our troops got "over there" and the Soviet Union had Germany in full retreat long before our D Day landing in WWII, you just go ahead and live in your "the US is #1 and no one else matters" world.

Not only is your knowledge of military history full of holes, but countries and civilizations are valued far more for good they do for their citizens and the world than the number of wars they win.

[LeftishBrit]

19. Do you want some Freedom Fries with that?

[Coventina]

20. Well in MY opinon, you can go there as well, troll. n/t

on edit: typo

on further edit: well, it seems I was arguing with a granite cookie....

[treestar]

15. We gained some respect back by electing Obama

There must be a measure of relief that sanity reigns here after all.