Posted on 10/11/2012 2:48:53 PM PDT by NYer
BOSTON, Mass. — Stop the drone attacks. Be tougher on terror. Help immigrants. Boost trade. Fix your economy, and help us fix ours while you’re at it. The world has plenty of gripes with the United States.
And they cover a lot of ground. How US policies play out overseas has been shaping countries’ trajectories for generations, much to the international community’s chagrin or delight.
Foreign affairs might not be the focus for most US voters, who tend to worry more about the economy and hospital bills. But talk to people on the street from Havana to Hong Kong and you’ll get an earful on how Washington should do less or more to influence their lives.
GlobalPost tapped into its extensive network of foreign correspondents, asking more than 100 people in 20 countries for their views on the United States and who they want to win the November election.
The hodgepodge of results culminate in the present project, “The US election: What if the world could vote?”
We found that the global community is no swing state. It’s firmly pro-Barack Obama: 65 percent of interviewees said they’d vote to re-elect him, while 18 percent favored Republican Mitt Romney (the remaining 17 percent was undecided or preferred neither candidate). Some 54 percent said their opinion of the US has improved with Obama in the White House.
Journalistic, not scientific
The findings are based on "on-the-street" interviews conducted over the summer, a time when Romney’s candidacy was still officially “presumptive.” More than half of the interviewees didn’t know who he was. And some struggled to pronounce his name.
“What? Mitchrom? … never heard of him,” a 36-year-old South African stationary shop attendant said.
“Romali? He's Indian guy, na?” said a 26-year-old digital marketing executive in New Delhi.
Those were replies to the first of a set of questions asked to each interviewee: Have you heard of Mitt Romney? Do you know who’s running for president of the United States? Whom would you vote for and why? Will the 2012 US election affect your country? What’s the most important thing the next president should do? Has your opinion of the US improved or worsened since Barack Obama took office?
More from GlobalPost: Dear Mr. President — give the next commander in chief a piece of your mind
The reporting was not anonymous. It uses names and faces, ages and occupations. The correspondents held real discussions with their subjects and photographed them. The assignment also called for the interviews to focus on as diverse a group as possible.
This all makes the project different from opinion polling. This exercise was journalistic, not scientific.
Foreign affairs may trail behind economics on the US electorate's worry list. But that doesn't mean it's unimportant. Now, thanks to flare-ups last month in the Middle East, foreign policy took a shocking leap to prominence in the 2012 US election race. Ordinary voices from abroad could resonate even more today in a country struggling to understand the world outside it.
Read Highway 2012: Foreign policy finally front and center
In GlobalPost's world vote project, the people on the street were not always forthcoming. GlobalPost's Erin Cunningham was struck by Egyptians' reluctance to speak their minds or allow their photos taken.
"It was surprisingly difficult to coax Egyptians into talking about US politics — surprising because Egyptians are not known for holding back their opinions," she said.
"When I lived in Cairo in 2006, at the height of the Iraq War, almost every Egyptian I encountered had something to say about Bush, the war, and American imperialism," she added. "When conducting these interviews, most of the Egyptians I interviewed were quite detached from trends in US politics."
Four out of five Egyptians she interviewed picked Obama. One, an undecided, said whoever the next president is, "He should relieve the Palestinians of the occupation and their bad situation."
The claim that Obama would handily win a race against Romney outside the US is supported by other respected surveys. In September, a Gallup International poll gave a world race to Obama in a landslide — 81 percent.
How is it beyond reason that this man is the AC?
So what if he isn’t the president of the world(yet). Still very could end up that way.
International forums generally are saying that any citizenship requirement for the American president is bad, because they have the right to have a say in who runs the country.
Believe me. War is coming, and not one of these lame “small wars” either.
I guess the world wants some of Obama’s “stash”. :O
So make him Secretary General of the U.N. or give him an administrative post in some “Non-Aligned Movement” NGO and get him out of our government.
Proof that the left, as well as political correctness, continues to dominate the entire world’s politics.
If he’s not, then he is a kindred spirit and a preview.
Lord deliver us from this evil.
A lot of it is immigration. Obama is perceived as "easier" on letting would-be immigrants and their extended families move to the US - which is why so many Asian-Americans continue to support him, in the face of all economic reason.
Little do they know that unless you are a manual laborer with a third-grade education and a willingness to illegally vote for Democrats, Obama and the Democrats have no use for you and no plans to let you in.
No surprize there. 65% of people on the planet want America destroyed -- just like Obi-done wants.
Lessee a good chunk of the rest of the world has no running water...let’s worry about what they think.
Typical American lifestyles are still far too high in comparison with the rest of the world, so that "problem" must be corrected by government power. If not by the US government, then the UN.
Gas prices rising to European levels? Check!
Government centralization of control growing? Check!
Tax burden growing? Check!
Individual excellence and financial success punished? Check!
Obama is exactly what the rest of the world wants in a US president: one who pulls American down, apologizes for her and does all he can to cripple her.
so would Hilter
And, Big Bird would beat Obama...
65% of the world is already under socialist regime! Of course theyd vote for more of it!!
Looks like America IS the worlds last hope.
Really? Do foreigners want what is good for America and the American people or what would be good for their countries, even if that hurt America and her people?
I have lived all over the world. One BS opinion foreigners all seem to have is that Americans know so little of the rest of the world. Maybe, there certainly are some. But let me tell you, they know so LITTLE about America!
First of all, even in the most civilized of nations, their press corps is a bunch of lying leftist slugs. They make up all kinds of stuff about us that is simply not true, or at best rumor and innuendo. Secondly, the vast majority of of the world gets their information about us from our movies, TV shows and magazines. Are you shuddering? We know that our movies are an ever accurate gauge of our minds and culture < /s >!
Others need to understand that we fought a revolution over taxation without representation. If the world get’s to decide my own country’s leaders, then the world becomes just another tyrant. No thanks!
Seriously, Obama wants to remake us into just another Eurosocialist state like Sweden. America, however, is unique in so many ways. This election is about whether we go his way, or stay the unique Republic we’ve been all these centuries. We simply can’t allow the rest of the world to make that decision for us.
We’ll fight them all if we have to. You’ve heard “Don’t mess with Texas!” How about don’t F**K with the USA!
Audemus jura nostra defendere!
THEY WANT THE FOREIGNER. THEY CAN HAVE HIM. ANOTHER REASON NOT TO DECREASE THE DEFENSE BUDGET.
Most of the world lives under the boot. Why do we care what people who have historically given up their freedom feel?
I still predict he will be SWEPT OUT of OFFICE by as large, or larger margin as he was swept in.
Americans like being unique and independent - if I were the Romney campaign, I might support this headline. It’s not a positive for Obama domestically....
Well of course O would win. He gets the islamic vote.
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