Support for Obama Soars in Europe: Poll

newsmax.com ^ | May 30, 2008 | Patrick Goodenough

[Free ThinkerNY]

If citizens of five leading European countries were electing the next U.S. president, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama would be a shoo-in, according to a new poll that also reveals strong views on America's global role.

In a survey of some 6,200 people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, the senator from Illinois received 52 percent of the vote to just 15 percent for Republican Sen. John McCain. Sen. Hillary Clinton was not listed as an option in the YouGov poll, conducted for the London Daily Telegraph 's Internet site.

The biggest gap between the two presumptive candidates was in Germany, where Obama scored 67 percent support to McCain's six percent. In Russia, the gap was the smallest, with Obama leading by a 31-24 margin.

Respondents in the other three countries also favored Obama by large margins -- Italy (70-15), France (65-8) and Britain (49-14).

To a separate question, respondents said Obama was better equipped than McCain "to lead the world economy out of its current difficulties" in all the surveyed countries except Russia, where McCain was favored by a 36-28 point margin.

The survey also found that more people in four of the five countries viewed the United States as "a force for evil" in today's world than "a force for good."

Only in Italy did more respondents (49-27 percent) consider the U.S. a force for good rather than evil. Of those in the other four countries, Russians were the most anti-American, with 56 percent calling the U.S. a force for evil and only 16 percent a force for good. Germans had the next most negative view (39-25 percent) of America's global role.

[balls]

I agree. Who gives a rats ass what the eurotrash think? After all, that’s why we are here and not there.

[Migraine]

Of course they’re for Baraq. They hate America, too.

[kempo]

I have a friend who just got back from Europe and he said CNN broadcast Hate America BS over there 24/7.

[CremeSaver]

I was reading a British site last evening and it was buzzing with US election updates. (Actually, I was blown away by how much attention they pay to US politics.) The entire premise of the thread was how excited they are getting about the election and Obama’s presidency. One poster said that they, “want so much to have a reason to like America again.” An American on the site wrote that he thought it was too late for that, and that the damage was already done. I agreed with the American.

[Maverick68]

If I ever doubted that I was absolutely 100% right in disliking and not trusting Obama, the Europeans erased all doubt. They are generally wrong about most everything....

[CremeSaver]

I have argued with quite a few who think that they have every right “to have a say” in American politics and elections, because what happens here “affects the whole world.” I said pony up your tax Euros first and we'll talk.

The problem as I see it, is that we treat them as equals and believe that they are competent enough to have their elections without interference. How nice it would be if we got the same courtesy without comment, or opinions from them.

[Clemenza]

A European Conservative is basically an American Democrat.

[Free ThinkerNY]

That could explain everything.

[snarks_when_bored]

Support for Obama Soars in Europe: Poll

Reason #427 not to vote for Obama.

[Williams]

F them. This is our country.

[rfp1234]

The next Demorats’ target constituency. If dead Americans can vote, why not live Euros?

[rfp1234]

The survey also found that more people in four of the five countries viewed the United States as "a force for evil secularism, abortion, and gay marriage" in today's world than "a force for good."

[hinckley buzzard]

No real surprise here. Obama is a euro-socialist, so he feels familiar to the masses of the teeming shore. Fortunately, the inspired Founders understood that America would flourish by eschewing the blighted values of the Old World. It still is true today. Europe's values are not our values and thank God for the difference.

[nathanbedford]

Although not a European, I guess I qualify to respond to your question as an American ex- pat who has spent most of every year in Germany for nearly 20 years now.

Anecdotally, I can confirm the poll. Virtually every German and Swiss that I talk to are enthusiastically for Obama. Their knowledge of the man and his politics, of course, is quite superficial. The article gives one indication why that is so, because they conflate Obama with JFK. Anyone knowledgeable with Kennedy would know that, despite his faults, he was philosophically an anti-Communist. Barak Obama, a disciple of Saul Alinsky, can hardly lay claim to kinship with Kennedy in that respect.

I think the support for Obama comes for the same reasons that it appears in America: Obama is black. There is no other conceivable reason for such a man with his stunning lack of qualifications to have virtually sewn up the nomination of a (formerly ) great American political party and to have found himself on the threshold of becoming President of the United States of America. As a black man, and an empty vessel, Obama, by his very personhood, offers the left expiation for the sins of slavery and prejudice. Since much of Europe believes that white America is bigoted, they join in this mass hypnosis.

Some years ago here on Free Republic there was a serious discussion about why Europe and America are traveling down diverging paths. It has more to it than mere distaste of George Bush and fondness for Barak Obama, it has to do with a widening gulf of philosophy between left and right.

I know there is a lot of indignant reaction in America especially on the right to the arrogance of leftism in Europe. The human reaction is to declare that we don't care what Europe thinks. The problem is, that conservatism is on the run all over the world, even in Europe despite the elections in France and in Britain. That leaves a shrinking number of red states in America, whose number might soon be reduced to the citadel of the old Confederacy, to carry the torch of liberty for the whole world. If Europe succumbs to leftism, it will succumb in the war of Islamic Jihad and America will be left without allies. The freedom of the whole world will be placed in jeopardy. I do not believe a dwindling number of red states, without any effective leverage in the federal government, can long hold out against the threat of international leftism.

By the time Barak Obama and the leftist American Senate conclude a series of international treaties, starting with "climate change", there will be no American Constitution and no Bill of Rights left.

We have no choice but to care about what Europe thinks.

[Names Ash Housewares]

They wanted Kerry too.

Didn’t happen for some strange reason.

[max americana]

**We have no choice but to care about what Europe thinks.**

That was the incorrect ending to your incisive comment. It should be ...

“we have no choice but to surrender our rights THEN the real revolution or Civil War begins.”

[Doug Loss]

I forget, how many Electors does Europe get in our Electoral College? None, you say? Then who cares what they think?

[EDINVA]

How does this square with the most recent French, German, and Italian elections? Or Brit for that matter. Each of the newly elected leaders in those countries is far friendlier to the US than their predecessors or opponents.

The US/Bush have been bashed more there than here, hard as that may be to imagine. And, I suspect the polling sample (per the Guardian) is more left leaning than the general populations of those countries (which are pretty left by US standards). It seems the US is the country they love to hate, but want to have their useless backs.

[Clemenza]

Again:

EURO CONSERVATIVES would be considered liberal or moderate Democrats in the US. On issues from the environment to human/civil rights, they are to the left of us.

Comparing a "conservative" in Europe to that of the US is an apples and oranges comparison. American conservatism is rooted in classical liberalism, while that of Europe is an amalgam of Catholic traditionalism and corporatavism, with the occasional neoliberal economic idea thrown in.

[dead]

Russians were the most anti-American, with 56 percent calling the U.S. a force for evil and only 16 percent a force for good.

Stalin's government-run killing machine slaughtered 20 million Russians. Apparently the ones who could comprehend history.

The remainder think the US is evil because we buy less Dixie Chick records than we used to.