Thread: Poll finds soaring European support for U.S. policy

Poll finds soaring European support for U.S. policy

Posted 40m ago |

WASHINGTON (AP) — European support for the U.S. president's handling of foreign policy has soared since President Obama took over from former president George W. Bush, but Europeans continue to view major issues including Afghanistan, Iran and global warming differently than Americans view them, a poll released Wednesday found.

Among those polled in the European Union and Turkey, about three-fourths, on average, said they supported Obama's handling of foreign policy compared with about a fifth who said the same for Bush last year, according to the survey. It was conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a nonpartisan policy institution that promotes trans-Atlantic cooperation, and the Compagnia di San Paolo, a research center in Turin, Italy.

The results were especially pronounced in Germany, where support shot up 80 percentage points to 92%, and in France, where it rose 77 percentage points to 88%.

The German Marshall Fund said in a press release that in eight years of conducting the survey, which includes dozens of polls, no other data changed as dramatically as the European support for U.S. policies between 2008 and 2009.

Obama's presidency has produced a less dramatic rise in support for U.S. polices in Central and Eastern Europe on average, where Bush enjoyed greater popularity than in Western Europe. Obama scored approval from almost nine of 10 people surveyed in Western Europe compared with about two-thirds in the four Central and Eastern countries surveyed: Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Last year, the poll found support for Bush at less than a fifth of those surveyed in the Western European countries and about a third in the other four countries.

Among the survey's other findings:

•Almost two-thirds of Europeans polled were pessimistic about stabilizing Afghanistan, while more than half of Americans were optimistic. The poll was conducted between June 9 and July 1, before Afghanistan's widely criticized Aug. 20 elections.

• If diplomatic efforts do not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, almost half of American respondents favored keeping open a military option, while only a fifth of Europeans polled agreed.

• About two-thirds of those polled in the European Union said everything should be done to prevent climate change, even if those steps slowed economic growth. Four in 10 American respondents agreed.

The telephone survey conducted between June 9 and July 1, polled 1,000 people each in the United States and 12 European countries: Britain, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey. Each country's survey had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... poll_N.htm

Most Americans don't give a rats arse about what Europeans want or like. They are the ones we are trying NOT to emulate!

Actually I don't believe that poll at all. My husband's family in Belgium told us last week that Obama's approval rating is going south, as much or if not more so than it is in the US.

Of course they are going to support Barackula's policies! They don't know any better/different.

I don't understand why we are supposed to care what they think anyway....they got thier own problems to deal with.....like allowing themselves to be overrun by terrorists, mosques and sharia law!

If the Germans are so infactuated with Wonder Boy perhaps we can trade him for a case of beer?

Barackula That made my day, lol.

Originally Posted by Dianne

Barackula That made my day, lol.

....I've got a million of 'em.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Poll finds soaring European support for U.S. policy

Posted 40m ago |

WASHINGTON (AP) — European support for the U.S. president's handling of foreign policy has soared since President Obama took over from former president George W. Bush, but Europeans continue to view major issues including Afghanistan, Iran and global warming differently than Americans view them, a poll released Wednesday found.

Among those polled in the European Union and Turkey, about three-fourths, on average, said they supported Obama's handling of foreign policy compared with about a fifth who said the same for Bush last year, according to the survey. It was conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a nonpartisan policy institution that promotes trans-Atlantic cooperation, and the Compagnia di San Paolo, a research center in Turin, Italy.

The results were especially pronounced in Germany, where support shot up 80 percentage points to 92%, and in France, where it rose 77 percentage points to 88%.

The German Marshall Fund said in a press release that in eight years of conducting the survey, which includes dozens of polls, no other data changed as dramatically as the European support for U.S. policies between 2008 and 2009.

Obama's presidency has produced a less dramatic rise in support for U.S. polices in Central and Eastern Europe on average, where Bush enjoyed greater popularity than in Western Europe. Obama scored approval from almost nine of 10 people surveyed in Western Europe compared with about two-thirds in the four Central and Eastern countries surveyed: Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Last year, the poll found support for Bush at less than a fifth of those surveyed in the Western European countries and about a third in the other four countries.

Among the survey's other findings:

•Almost two-thirds of Europeans polled were pessimistic about stabilizing Afghanistan, while more than half of Americans were optimistic. The poll was conducted between June 9 and July 1, before Afghanistan's widely criticized Aug. 20 elections.

• If diplomatic efforts do not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, almost half of American respondents favored keeping open a military option, while only a fifth of Europeans polled agreed.

• About two-thirds of those polled in the European Union said everything should be done to prevent climate change, even if those steps slowed economic growth. Four in 10 American respondents agreed.

The telephone survey conducted between June 9 and July 1, polled 1,000 people each in the United States and 12 European countries: Britain, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey. Each country's survey had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... poll_N.htm

The hell with europe, i hope Putin shuts off the Naturalgas pipeline this winter on them