Posted on 10/01/2004 6:55:53 PM PDT by Shermy
PARIS (Reuters) - Nearly nine out of ten French people would back John Kerry if they could vote in the U.S. election, according to an opinion poll on Friday which showed deep distrust of President Bush (news - web sites) since the Iraq war.
The poll, published after Kerry and Bush battled over Iraq in a television debate, came as no surprise in the country which led opposition to the U.S.-led war and whose people were dubbed "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" by American Republicans.
But it underlined concern abroad over U.S. policies and highlighted the gulf that has opened with France -- even if Kerry and his aides may not wish to be too closely associated with France in the run-up to next month's election.
Eighty-seven percent of French people would back Democrat Kerry and 13 percent would vote for Republican Bush, according to the poll conducted by the CSA research group and published by La Croix newspaper.
Fifty-seven percent thought U.S.-French relations would be better under Kerry and 36 percent thought ties would not change. Seven percent said relations would improve if Bush won a second term and 65 percent said they would stay the same.
"We are in a logic of 'Anything but Bush," Andre Kaspi, a professor in North American history at Paris's Sorbonne University, told La Croix.
"French people know little about John Kerry, but it doesn't matter. Whoever the candidate was against George Bush, he would get the same support here."
Asked their main sentiment when they think of the United States, 36 percent said they feel critical, 33 percent felt worried and only six percent said they felt admiration.
Eighty percent of the 954 people surveyed on Sept. 22 and 23 wished the United States had less influence in global defense and military matters -- much more than the 57 percent in a poll conducted in October 2000, before Bush took office.
"There is no doubt that international support for United States has fallen a lot in the last four years. This is true in France in particular, but this is a global trend and is also very strong in the Arab world," Kaspi said.
At the height of the U.S.-French row over the Iraq war, some Americans called for boycotts of French products although the appeals had little impact on sales.
Pierre Lelouche, a conservative member of parliament who has close contacts with the United States, said the United States had become more nationalistic since the Cold war ended.
"This America was embryonic under (President Bill) Clinton and even if Kerry is elected it risks staying the same," he told Metro newspaper.
anyone completely surprised by this result please run as fast as you can into the nearest brick wall and lead with your head!!!!
Repeatedly!!!!!
Naturellement the French are not nationalistic at all.
< /sarcasm>
The French eat snails and frogs as well.
Dammit that idiot Bush has lost the key French demographic. we're doomed.
I guess the good news is that 13% of the French remain good and decent people.
Untrue.
Typical article. French distaste for America posed as merely reflexive to perceived American wrongs.
The French are arrogant and rarely bathe. Should we care what they think?
Now I know who Kerry was aiming at when he spoke of a "global test" for preemptive action. I'm sure Mssr. Chirac is a happy man tonight, and hoping like crazy for a Kerry victory.
The French are nothing but Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys!!
Has anyone in the liberal media ever done a poll to determine how many Americans would vote for Chirac in the French election?
The scary thing is most libs believe the approval of the French is important.
Chirac will probably die of some sort of venereal disease.
John Kerry does. It's a cryptic centerpiece to his campaign.
Bush could have blown out this "multilateral" "Allies" meme long ago. Who was it, Powell? State?, who overruled condi and stopped Foood for Oil disclosures and revealing French actions before the war? Bad, bad mistake. Perhaps not anticpated that a Dem candidate would use it so forcefully in a future election. Anyway, maybe too late to counter, Kerry will "move on" to domestic policy, questions about his foreign policy perfidy brushed off by compliant media. The DNC talking heads sound like Gaullists.
No surprise here....
Stink is expected with feces...
Semper Fi
Chirac est la femme!
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