Poll: U.S. global appeal improves with Obama

WASHINGTON — A new global survey has found a vast improvement in views of the United States since the election of President Obama. But it also finds broad opposition to one of his key policies — sending more troops to Afghanistan — and confirms a drop in confidence in the United States among Israelis.

Obama, according to the survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, enjoys greater confidence among Germans than does Chancellor Angela Merkel, and among the French than President Nicolas Sarkozy. His election, pollsters found, helped restore the United States' image abroad to levels unseen since the Clinton years.

Improved attitudes toward the United States were most marked in Western Europe, but also evident in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and some predominantly Muslim countries.

In Indonesia, where Obama spent part of his youth, no fewer than 73 percent of those polled said his election had improved their opinion of the United States.

But the survey, taken among more than 26,000 people in 24 countries, plus the Palestinian territories, found that anti-American animosity remained high in places such as Pakistan, Turkey and among Palestinians.

Europeans, in particular, seemed to be responding positively to Obama. The number of Britons saying they trusted the U.S. president to do the "right thing" in world affairs soared to 86 percent this year, under Obama, compared with 16 percent last year, under President George W. Bush. The increase was slightly larger in Germany and France.

The right-thing numbers also jumped in all Middle Eastern countries surveyed, except Israel, which saw no statistical change.

Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo, Egypt, to the Muslim world appeared to boost his standing slightly among Palestinians. But Israeli confidence in Obama to do the right thing slipped from 60 percent before the speech to 49 percent afterward. Israelis were the ones 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, Jordan, Nigeria and Indonesia — all predominantly Muslim nations — expressed greater confidence in the U.S. president than in Osama bin Laden.

His high rating overseas is "in spite of the economy," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Center, based in Washington. "His high ratings reflect personal confidence in him — and a sense that he will be much different than Bush — more multilateral, will seek international approval before using force, ending Guantánamo, getting out of Iraq."

The survey, taken from late May to mid-June, had national margins of error of 2 to 4 percentage points. The polling samples in Brazil, China, India and Pakistan were disproportionately urban.