World wants Obama

[pledm]

World wants Obama as president: poll

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said.

All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Senator Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain.

In 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins.

More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from Australia to India and across Africa, Europe and South America.

The margin in favour of Senator Obama ranged from 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya, while an average of 49 per cent across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12 per cent preferring Senator McCain. Some four in 10 did not take a view.

"Large numbers of people around the world clearly like what Barack Obama represents," GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller said.

"Given how negative America's international image is at present, it is quite striking that only one in five think a McCain presidency would improve on the Bush administration's relations with the world."

In the United States, three polls taken since the Republican party convention ended on Thursday (local time) show Senator McCain with a lead of 1 to 4 percentage points - within the margin of error - and two others show the two neck-and-neck.

The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies, including Australia (62 per cent).

A similar BBC/Globescan poll conducted ahead of the 2004 U.S presidential election found that, of 35 countries polled, 30 would have preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry, rather than the incumbent George Bush, who was elected.

A total of 23,531 people in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, the UAE, Britain and the United States were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone in July and August 2008 for the poll.

I want him to be the next Prez,think it will help America with the World countries.

[pledm]

Russians like Putin and Obama, polls find

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would triumph over President Dmitry Medvedev if presidential polls were held this weekend, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.

A separate survey showed that if Russians were allowed to vote in U.S. polls, they would prefer Democrat Barack Obama to Republican John McCain.

The polls follow Russia's intervention in Georgia last month to crush Tbilisi's attempt to retake a pro-Moscow separatist region of South Ossetia.

Moscow defied Western threats of punitive action and recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia, as independent.

Medvedev, a handpicked successor of Putin who took office in May, assumed the leading role during the conflict. But in many episodes Putin's firebrand anti-Western statements overshadowed his performance.

When asked by independent pollster the Levada Centre which of the two they would vote for if elections were held next week, Russians preferred Putin, giving him 33 percent backing against 14 percent for Medvedev.

No other candidate received more than 4 per cent, Levada said. It surveyed 1,600 Russians in 10 cities between August 15-18 on who they would back if elections were held the following Sunday. Some 44 percent did not indicate if, or how, they would vote.

Pollsters for state-run VTsIOM found that if Russians could vote in U.S. elections, the Republicans would get little support, though most of those queried did no give a view.

Obama would receive 27 percent support and McCain 6 percent, VTsIOM found, in the September 6-7 poll of 1,600 Russians.

"I attribute our findings mainly to the fact that McCain has made more anti-Russian rhetoric. Obama seemed to be a little more pro-Russian," Olga Kamenchuk, VIsIOM communications director, told Reuters.

Levada found strong public support of 80 percent in favor of Russia's decision to recognize South Ossetia in a second poll carried out on September 5-8.

The survey found public opinion was against another Kremlin policy -- leaving a permanent military presence in Georgia's breakaway regions, a policy the Kremlin announced this week.

While 46 percent said they endorsed the presence of Russian peacekeepers, only 34 percent said they wanted regular Russian soldiers there, in a sign that public support for the Georgian policy is not unconditional.

A further 11 percent backed either UN or EU peacekeepers and 9 percent gave no view.

Its just interesting the view of the other countries.

[pledm]

If anyone needed proof of France's love for Barack Obama, le Figaro offered it today with an opinion poll. This finds that 80 percent of the French want the Democrat candidate to win the US presidency while only eight percent favour John McCain.

The poll was carried out by TNS Sofres on September 2 and 3, before McCain benefited from the Sarah Palin bounce but it gives an idea of the overwhelming wish in France to see a President Obama take office. Eighty-six percent have a good opinion of him compared with only 35 percent for McCain. The strong support cuts across social class and the political spectrum. The most senior French politicians at the Democratic convention came from President Sarkozy's rightwing UMP party, not the leftwing opposition.

The BBC found pro-Obama feeling to be strong worldwide in a poll this week, but the passion seems to run higher in France than anywhere. There are reasons for this.

France has an idealised and schizophrenic view of the United States that dates back to 1776 when King Louis XVI helped the colonial insurgents fight Britain's peace-keeping force. France feels that it has a founding share in the nation which bestowed jazz, GIs, cocktails, JFK and Clint Eastwood on Europe. It dislikes what it sees as the more primary, messianic and intolerant America that is represented by Republicans and personified by George W Bush.

Given the demonisation of Bush, it is surprising that the Figaro poll found that as many as 18 percent of the French hold a favourable opinion of him.

French misunderstanding of the USA has been glaring in the coverage of Sarah Palin. TV reporters have been at a loss to explain hockey moms and the excitement over a woman whose pitch is patriotism, religion and family values. France prefers American frontier heroes of the fictional kind, courtesy of John Ford or Sergio Leone. Few have noticed that Palin invented a French name for the company which she registered earlier in her career -- Rouge Cou. "It’s a classy way of saying redneck," she told The Anchorage Daily. "It’s a French word, rouge is red, cou is neck. It’s for marketing and consulting, in case I wanted to go that route" (No doubt she has been told that it should be Cou Rouge).

French readiness to take a dark, even irrational, view of America was on display again this week when Jean-Marie Bigard, a popular comic and actor, proclaimed his belief in the conspiracy version of September 11 2001.

"It is absolutely sure and certain now that the two planes that crashed on the (Pennsylvania) forest and the Pentagon never existed. There was never a plane... It is a vast lie", he said on Europe 1, a popular national radio station. After a dressing down by his managers, Bigard apologised today but he did not retract the view, which is shared by many in France as we have seen here before (The New York Times had a good piece yesterday on the consensus in the Middle East that 9/11 was a US conspiracy).

You can dismiss Bigard's ideas as provocation by a loud-mouthed celebrity except that some people take him seriously. President Sarkozy is a friend and even invited him along on a recent trip to the Vatican and presented him to Pope Benedict XVI.

To take the argument full circle, Sarkozy is a good example of the French Americophile. He loves the ideal United States to the point of excess, as he showed in his rapturous speech to Congress last autumn. He admires the power, the can-do outlook and the style (His Hungarian-born father has even said that he would have preferred his boy to be president of the USA.)

But Sarko has trouble understanding the real America. He has never learnt its language. Carla Bruni, his supermodel wife, a one-time New York City resident, has been briefing him. She offered a telling glimpse the other day in a Europe 1 interview. She said that Sarko did not listen much to "Anglo-Saxon" music. He prefers French pop and rock artists because he understands the words, she said. One of his favourites is Johnny Hallyday, the evergreen rock idol. Known once as the "French Elvis", Hallyday has of course spent nearly 50 years perfecting his act as France's idea of an American.

Johnny even customized one of his great hits in Sarkozy's honour. Its title, Quelque chose de Tennessee became Quelque chose de Sarkozy.

[Bob]

It seems like whoever I talk to here in Sweden, they would very much like to see Obama as the new president of the USA.

[pledm]

Just had a kick out of this cartoon satire of McCain and his new sidekick,the reason is before McCain picked this woman he was jealous about Obamas popularity,calling him a celebrity not a politician.But now McCain has his celebrity with Palin(which I don`t understand)and he is soaking it for all its worth.Before McCain couldn`t get 5 people to listen to him now he gets thousands with Palin and he is now from what I hear going to be with her alot more.

God I hope McCain doesn`t win I think it would be terrible for America and the world,its just 4 more yrs of bush.Sad.

[pledm]

Palin says she's ready to step in as president

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Thursday that she didn't blink when Republican John McCain asked her to be his running mate, a surprise selection that shook up the presidential race.

"I didn't hesitate, no," she told ABC's Charlie Gibson in her first televised interview since accepting the Arizona senator's invitation to be on the Republican ticket two weeks ago.

"I answered him 'yes' because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink. So I didn't blink then even when asked to run as his running mate," said the 44-year-old Palin, a governor who has been in office less than two years.

Asked if she felt ready to step in as vice president or perhaps even president if something happened to the 72-year-old McCain, Palin said: "I do, Charlie, and on January 20, when John McCain and I are sworn in, if we are so privileged to be elected to serve this country, we'll be ready. I'm ready."

Gibson also read Palin a comment she made in her former church — "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God" — and asked whether she thought the United States was fighting a holy war.

Palin said she was recalling Abraham Lincoln's words when she made the comment and said: "I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words."

Asked if her son Track who is headed to Iraq was on a mission from God, she said she didn't know about that.

"I don't know if the task is from God, Charlie," Palin said. "What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer."

This woman is ready to be prez,like she says,bullshit.

[Bob]

God forbid!

[Summer]

I will be extremely angry and upset if this woman makes it into office! Her religious views cripple her sanity as far as I am concerned!