Public Image of Barack Obama - Around The World

Around The World

See also: International media reaction to Barack Obama's 2008 election

All 22 countries covered in a September 2008 BBC poll said they would prefer to see Senator Obama elected president ahead of Republican opponent John McCain. In 17 of the 22 nations, people expected relations between the United States and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama won. More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from Canada to India and across Africa, Europe and South America. The margin in favor of Senator Obama ranged from 9% in India to 82% in Kenya (location of Obama's paternal ancestry), while an average of 49% across the 22 countries preferred Senator Obama compared with 12% preferring Senator McCain. Some four in ten did not express a view.

A similar global poll was held by Reader's Digest, with respondents "overwhelmingly" in favor of Obama from all 17 countries, including Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Indonesia, Britain and Spain. Russia gave Obama the lowest score among the countries polled, but still preferred Obama over McCain with a 35% margin. In Australia a poll conducted in August 2008 found that over 75% of Australians wanted Obama to win the presidential election, while only 10% showed support for McCain.

Similar results were found in New Zealand (65% in favor of Obama, 11% in favor of McCain), Japan (49% in favor of Obama, 13% in favor of McCain), France (65% in favor of Obama, 8% in favor of McCain), Italy (70% in favor of Obama, 15% in favor of McCain), Germany (67% in favor of Obama, 6% in favor of McCain) and the Netherlands (90% in favor of Obama, 6% in favor of McCain). The only country surveyed (other than the U.S.) where McCain's popularity rivaled Obama's was Jordan, where 22% were in favor of Obama and 23% in favor of McCain. Obama scored higher approval ratings in all 70 countries covered in an October 2008 Gallup poll, with the most favorable scores coming from Asian and European countries.

In 2007 German journalist Christoph von Marschall wrote a book entitled Barack Obama – Der schwarze Kennedy. The literal translation of its German title is "Barack Obama. The Black Kennedy". His book was a best seller in Germany, where other commentators had also made comparisons between the two politicians.

In addition to this, Obama has established close relationships with prominent foreign politicians and elected officials even before his presidential candidacy, notably with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he met in London in 2005, with former President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, who visited him in Washington in 2006 as France's Interior Minister, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who spoke with Obama by telephone from Washington, D.C., in 2008 (while Obama was campaigning elsewhere), as well as with Italy's Democratic Party leader, and then Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, who was welcomed in Obama's Senate office in Washington in 2005 and later wrote the introduction to Obama's The Audacity of Hope Italian edition.

Gallup polls have shown that approval ratings of U.S. leadership in other countries have significantly increased since Obama took office, including a 57 percent increase in Ireland, a 41 percent increase in the United Kingdom and a 46 percent increase in Spain.

The results of a BBC World Service poll conducted between November 2009 and February 2010 suggest a sharp, positive, increase in the way citizens of polled Countries around the World view the United States. For the first time since the Iraq War in 2003, more people around the World view the United States more positively than negatively. Director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes Steven Kull, who partnered in directing the poll, stated "after a year, it appears the 'Obama effect' is real". Referring to the fact that Obama had been in office around one year during the time the polls were taken.

In response to a petition and a Facebook group, Indonesian authorities are debating whether to relocate a bronze statue in Jakarta depicting United States President Barack Obama as a smiling 10-year-old child. The petitioners are asking the statue be relocated to the elementary school Obama had attended as a child while living in Menteng for four years.