World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests

[Dr.House]

Oh no, why don't you do it.

Tell me and everyone else here why it matters.

Who said it matters, fuckstain?

You made a stupid leftist comment and I made a counter post mocking your stupid leftist comment...


Do you spend hours practicing at being stupid or is it just a natural born talent with you?

So, in other words, you're just talking out your ass (again) when you bring up the bowing thing.

Gotcha.

No, I was mocking your stupidity, dumbfuck... I already told you this...

Are you pretending to be dumber than truthmatters?

 

[Diuretic]

Does anyone think the right wing gives a damn what the rest of the world thinks?

Well, you would think they don't, but they've sure made a big deal out of it earlier with this President.

I imagine they have made such a big deal out of it because the left frequently pointed out how Bush was disliked around the world and that Obama was going to be some sort of savior for our world image.

It's certainly turning out that way

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

It's certainly turning out that way

In the end it may and it could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing.

 

[Diuretic]

It's certainly turning out that way

In the end it may and it could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing.

I've long argued that foreign policy should be based on national self-interest and not emotions such as cultural similarities. But it's a damn sight better for all of us when allies actually appreciate each other

 

[Political Junky]

Does anyone think the right wing gives a damn what the rest of the world thinks?

Why should anyone give a damn? No other nation can boast of the same kind of significant accomplishments of the United States of America.

You're dwelling in the past. America has gone from a creditor nation to a debtor nation.

 

[EriktheRed]

Poll says Obama, Dalai Lama world's most popular - Yahoo! News

 

[L.K.Eder]

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests

Well, how the hell can that be when so many intelligent and insightful cons on here keep insisting our image in the world is going down because the President dares to show respect to other world leaders??

hey, he sent the churchill bust back!

 

[Skull Pilot]

Bari Weiss: Miss Me Yet? The Freedom Agenda After George W. Bush - WSJ.com

Dallas

No one seems to know precisely who is behind the "Miss Me Yet?" billboard—the cheeky one featuring a grinning George W. Bush that looks out over I-35 near Wyoming, Minn. But Syrian dissident Ahed Al-Hendi sympathizes with the thought.

In 2006, Mr. Hendi was browsing pro-democracy Web sites in a Damascus Internet café when plainclothes cops carrying automatic guns swooped in, cuffed him, and threw him into the trunk of a car. He spent over a month in prison, some of it alone in a 5-by-3 windowless basement cell where he listened to his friend being tortured in the one next door. Those screams, he says, were cold comfort—at least he knew his friend hadn't been killed.

Mr. Hendi was one of the lucky ones: He's now living in Maryland as a political refugee where he works for an organization called Cyberdissidents.org. And this past Monday, he joined other international dissidents at a conference sponsored by the Bush Institute at Southern Methodist University to discuss the way digital tools can be used to resist repressive regimes.

He also got to meet the 43rd president. In a private breakfast hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Bush, Mr. Hendi's message to the former president was simple: "We miss you." There have been "a lot of changes" under the current administration, he added, and not for the better.

Adrian Hong, who was imprisoned in China in 2006 for his work helping North Koreans escape the country (a modern underground railroad), echoed that idea. "When I was released [after 10 days] I was told it was because of very strong messaging from the White House and the culture you set," he told Mr. Bush.

The former president, now sporting a deep tan, didn't mention President Obama once on or off the record. The most he would say was, "I'm really concerned about an isolationist mentality . . . I don't think it lives up to the values of our country." The dissidents weren't so diplomatic.

Mr. Hendi elaborated on the policy changes he thinks Mr. Obama has made toward his home country. "In Syria, when a single dissident was arrested during the administration of George W. Bush, at the very least the White House spokesman would condemn it. Under the Obama administration: nothing."

Nor is Mr. Hendi a fan of this administration's efforts to engage the regime, most recently by deciding to send an ambassador to Damascus for the first time since 2005. "This gives confidence to the regime," he says. "They are not capable of a dialogue; they don't believe in it. They believe in force."

Mr. Hong put things this way: "When you look at the championing of dissidents . . . and even the rhetoric, it's dropped off sharply." Under Mr. Bush, he says, there were many high-profile meetings with North Korean dissidents. "They went out of their way to show this was a priority."

Then there is Marcel Granier, the president of RCTV, Venezuela's oldest and most popular television station. He employs several thousand people—or at least he did until Hugo Chávez cancelled the network's license in 2007. Now, he's struggling to maintain an independent channel on cable: Mr. Chávez ordered the cable networks not to carry his station in January. Government supporters have attacked his home with tear gas twice, yet he remains in the country, tirelessly advocating for media freedom.

Like many of the democrats at the conference, Mr. Granier was excited by Mr. Obama's historic election, and inspired by the way he energized American voters. But a year and a half later, he's disturbed by the administration's silence as his country slips rapidly towards dictatorship. "In Afghanistan," he quips, "at least they know that America will be involved for the next 18 months."

This sense of abandonment has been fueled by real policy shifts. Just this week word came that the administration cut funds to promote democracy in Egypt by half. Programs in countries like Jordan and Iran have also faced cuts. Then there are the symbolic gestures: letting the Dalai Lama out the back door, paltry statements of support for Iranian demonstrators, smiling and shaking hands with Mr. Chávez, and so on.

Daniel Baer, a representative from the State Department who participated in the conference, dismissed the notion that the White House has distanced itself from human-rights promotion as a baseless "meme" when I raised the issue. But in fact all of this is of a piece of Mr. Obama's overarching strategy to make it abundantly clear that he is not his predecessor.

Mr. Bush is almost certainly aware that the freedom agenda, the centerpiece of his presidency, has become indelibly linked to the war in Iraq and to regime change by force. Too bad. The peaceful promotion of human rights and democracy—in part by supporting the individuals risking their lives for liberty—are consonant with America's most basic values. Standing up for them should not be a partisan issue.

Yet for now Mr. Bush is simply not the right poster boy: He can't successfully rebrand and depoliticize the freedom agenda. So perhaps he hopes that by sitting back he can let Americans who remain wary of publicly embracing this cause become comfortable with it again. For the sake of the courageous democrats in countries like Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Colombia, China and Russia, let's hope so.

Seems some in the international community do miss GW.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Nah Frank, Bush and particularly Cheney have gone, so has almost the entire Bush Administration bar Gates (who seems to be a pretty good operator). Simple as that. People outside the US were actually scared of what BushCheney might do. Also the hubris was a bit much to take. And they fucked up the PR after 9/11 badly. The only people who see the US under Obama as a threat to them now are the people who bloody well deserve it.

Ya and a 5 year old poll is sure telling isn't it? I mean with all those years of background and history to compare and contrast? Right? Kinda like the 30 year record of temperatures the warmers trot out to claim the earth is warming and man caused it.

 

[tigerbob]

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests

Well, how the hell can that be when so many intelligent and insightful cons on here keep insisting our image in the world is going down because the President dares to show respect to other world leaders??

Of course the image of America is improving. Is anyone really suggesting that after Bush it had anywhere else to go?

The poll respondents will be answering questions based on their view of Obama's foreign policy. They are unlikely to be considering the domestic policy controversies that mire debate in the U.S.

Ask yourself this. For 18 months Obama has been traveling the world ingratiating himself with leaders of other countries. After 8 years of Bush doing exactly what he liked, do you think people in other countries are pleased to see the leader of the world's only superpower trying to make nice with them? Of course they are. No country likes to think its views are being ignored.

I can't see why the results of this poll are a surprise to anyone, or are being disbelieved by anyone.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Where are the poll fiends on this one I wonder? After all, what are they going to say about BBC? That they're under Obama's thumb?

You might have just mortally wounded the entire right wing with this information.

Do you and truthmatters sit around all day thinking up ways of out-"stupiding" the other?

Dueling Stupidos

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Nah Frank, Bush and particularly Cheney have gone, so has almost the entire Bush Administration bar Gates (who seems to be a pretty good operator). Simple as that. People outside the US were actually scared of what BushCheney might do. Also the hubris was a bit much to take. And they fucked up the PR after 9/11 badly. The only people who see the US under Obama as a threat to them now are the people who bloody well deserve it.

There are some people outside of the US who absolutely should be scared of what we might do and I'm all for that!

 

[antagon]

Does anyone think the right wing gives a damn what the rest of the world thinks?

Why should anyone give a damn? No other nation can boast of the same kind of significant accomplishments of the United States of America.

every american, can benefit from a government which can build, not waste, diplomatic capital. this poll indicates that we're moving on from your and the last administration's position that these 'significant accomplishments' should be dragged through the mud outside our borders.

 

[Diuretic]

Nah Frank, Bush and particularly Cheney have gone, so has almost the entire Bush Administration bar Gates (who seems to be a pretty good operator). Simple as that. People outside the US were actually scared of what BushCheney might do. Also the hubris was a bit much to take. And they fucked up the PR after 9/11 badly. The only people who see the US under Obama as a threat to them now are the people who bloody well deserve it.

There are some people outside of the US who absolutely should be scared of what we might do and I'm all for that!

Just hope they haven't got access to nuclear or biological weapons though.

 

[antagon]

Seems some in the international community do miss GW.

some of the old guard, indeed.

 

[Douger]

Obama is the cause of global warming ?

 

[007]

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests

Well, how the hell can that be when so many intelligent and insightful cons on here keep insisting our image in the world is going down because the President dares to show respect to other world leaders??

Sure... and here ya go redness....

But never fear, this little lop eared, purple lipped buffoon is making sure we are...

 

[rightwinger]

Clearly, the rest of the world feared what Bush/Cheney might do. It helped Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize just by charting a different course than Bush.

When I met people from other countries in Europe and the Americas when Bush was president, they would politely probe..."Why would you elect that guy"?

Now they seem more confident that America is not going to do something stupid. Obama, by going around the world and apologizing for what a fuck-up Bush was. He has made it clear that this is not the real America and that we are willing to listen to the concerns and issues of other countries

 

[007]

Clearly, the rest of the world feared what Bush/Cheney might do. It helped Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize just by charting a different course than Bush.

When I met people from other countries in Europe and the Americas when Bush was president, they would politely probe..."Why would you elect that guy"?

Now they seem more confident that America is not going to do something stupid. Obama, by going around the world and apologizing for what a fuck-up Bush was. He has made it clear that this is not the real America and that we are willing to listen to the concerns and issues of other countries

PFFFT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

[rightwinger]

Clearly, the rest of the world feared what Bush/Cheney might do. It helped Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize just by charting a different course than Bush.

When I met people from other countries in Europe and the Americas when Bush was president, they would politely probe..."Why would you elect that guy"?

Now they seem more confident that America is not going to do something stupid. Obama, by going around the world and apologizing for what a fuck-up Bush was. He has made it clear that this is not the real America and that we are willing to listen to the concerns and issues of other countries

PFFFT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks for demonstrating my point about Bush supporters and you wonder why the whole world hated him?