This stuff is weird. I get the same reactions from liberals at my own university who keep worrying about “restoring our image in the world” (why we should vote for Obama). And yet, someone whom I know very well who runs meetings in Latin America for an important international organization laughs to me and says they have people from many of these countries at these meetings, and they say ( better than 90%) “How can you Americans vote for this idiot Obama?).
Got me.
The same here. If you ask someone on the street here who he thinks should win he will say the "black guy" or if you are asking Muslims then they will 100% say Barack Obama.
On the otherhand, the educated people over here (non Muslim) seem to all think Obama is nothing more than an empty suit and are dumbfounded at how Americans support the guy.
What has hurt America in the eyes of many educated foreigners is that Obama is even being considered, it makes us look like idiots.