Britain's backing Obama: Democrat beats McCain by five votes to one

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US election 2008: Britain's backing Obama: Democrat beats McCain by five votes to one
Julian Glover and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/14/barackobama.johnmccain


Obama’s support in Britain does not alter across age barriers, as it does in the US. Photograph: Bryan Oller/AP/The Gazette

Barack Obama is overwhelmingly Britain's choice to be the next US president, five times more popular than his Republican rival, John McCain, a Guardian/ICM poll shows today. Carried out ahead of the Democratic candidate's visit to Britain next week, the poll reveals that 53% feel certain he would make the best president, with only 11% favouring McCain; 36% declined to express an opinion.

Obama will soon set off on a marathon trip that will take in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, Germany, France and, lastly, Britain. The exact timing of the visit to Iraq and Afghanistan is being kept under wraps for security reasons, but he is expected in Britain on July 25 or 26. His campaign team and the British government had originally discussed making the UK his first stop but, citing diary clashes, rescheduled it as the last.

It will be his first trip overseas - apart from a holiday weekend in the Caribbean - since he launched his bid for the White House in February last year. The aim is to counter accusations from McCain that he lacks foreign experience.

Obama's poll lead may have as much to do with his high profile and recognition factor as it does his policies. But it underlines the desire among US allies to see a change of political direction there after eight years of George Bush. Obama's campaign team hopes to use the European leg of the trip to press home to the US public that replacing Bush with the Democratic candidate should see America's popularity in Europe restored.

[BlueJazz]

1. Once again...other countries show how Politically Ignorant most ....

..Americans have become..

Here we have a Great man and a Dullard...and they're almost even in the Polls.

[NattPang]

2. We are an embarassing bunch, aren't we?

[mwb970]

4. We must at this point be the stupidest nation on the planet.

We elect Al Gore, then sit quietly while the Supreme Court illegally installs the Worst President Ever. After four years of stupefying arrogance and overwhelming incompetence in every area, we re-elect the stupid draft-dodging fool, rejecting an intelligent, experienced war hero, as the world shakes its collective head in bafflement and disgust. We also allow an unprincipled, unspeakably evil vice president to call all the "shots" without a peep.

Now we stand ready to elect a doddering old man (who has never sent an e-mail and is "learning to get online") based on his promises for more of the same, that is when he's not promising the exact opposite to some other group.

If America were a person, that person would have been institutionalized years ago so that he would no longer be a danger to himself and others. How long before the sane portion of the world "institutionalizes" America?

What is wrong with us?

[Prophet 451]

3. That may be slightly misleading

The polling was conducted partly by the Guardian, a stalwart leftie newspaper. If you surveyed the readers of the Daily Mail (think Faux News crossed with the National Enquirer), you'd probably get a very different response. No doubt, we'd prefer to see Obama win but I don't think teh margin is quite that huge.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. It was a national opinion poll, not a reader survey

ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,009 adults aged 18+ on July 9-10. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

The question asked was: "You may have seen or heard that John McCain and Barack Obama are set to be the candidates in the American Presidential elections which will take place in November. As far as you are aware, which one of them do you think would make the better President of the United States?"

Seems pretty unbiased to me. There's a breakdown by age here, ABC1C2DE classification, sex and region - McCain didn't get aboe 16% in any group, and Obama was over 50% in all but 2 (which were groups with large "don't know"s rather than any enthusiasm for McCain - every group had at least 3 times the number of people preferring Obama over McCain ).

[Prophet 451]

6. Ah, fair enough

My bad.