Europeans love Obama apology tour; Israelis and 'Palestinians' hate it
The New York Times reports on the results of a Pew survey that shows that Europeans in particular are enamored of the Obama Blame America World Tour that's been taking place since January. On the other hand, Israelis hate it (the only country to show a significant decline in confidence in the United States to do the right thing), and 'Palestinians,' while having a better view of the United States, are still far below average (via Memeorandum). Europeans, in particular, seemed to be responding positively to Mr. Obama. The number of Britons saying that they trusted the American president to do the “right thing” in world affairs soared to 86 percent this year, under Mr. Obama, compared with just 16 percent last year, under President George W. Bush. The increase was slightly larger in both Germany and France.A leader doesn't have to be loved; he has to be respected. The same is true of countries that are world leaders. I'm sure, for example, that Obama is much more loved than his predecessor in Iran today because they believe he will do nothing to stop them from obtaining nuclear weapons, whereas George Bush would have stopped them at some point. Is that really the kind of popularity contest that Americans want to be winning? Leadership is about looking ahead. It's not about looking back via poll numbers to make sure the rest of the world is following.
The right thing numbers also jumped in all Middle Eastern countries surveyed — except Israel, which saw no statistical change.
Mr. Obama’s June 4 speech in Cairo directed to the Muslim world gave his standing a statistically insignificant boost among Palestinians. But Israeli confidence in Mr. Obama to do the right thing slipped from 60 percent before the speech to 49 percent afterward. Israelis were the only people polled who gave the United States lower ratings than in past surveys.
For the first time since Pew began making the comparison, people in Turkey, Egypt, and Indonesia — all predominantly Muslim nations — expressed greater confidence in the American president than in Osama bin Laden.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:36 AM
1 Comments:
True leadership means doing the right thing - and convincing people the right thing is also the popular thing to do. Leadership does not mean doing whatever is expedient for the make sake of popularity. True leadership is doing things out of principle and sticking to principle no matter what follows. Obama is not a leader; he's thrown people under the bus, broken his promises and done what he thought helped him to maintain his popularity. The world may love him for being popular but for sure they despise behind his back.
Such are the fruits of worldly tenmptation.
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