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Monday, August 09, 2010

Arab World Loses Hope For Change Under Obama

Arabs' belief that U.S. President Barack Obama could deliver on promises for a “new beginning” have been dashed, an annual survey of public opinion in Middle Eastern countries shows.

The survey of Arab public opinion conducted by Shibley Telhami shows that positive views of President Obama have plummeted from 45 percent in 2009 to 20 percent today, with the negative views of him skyrocketing from 23 percent to 62 percent.

While Obama has been claiming that his “outstretched hand” approach will win the U.S. new friends in the Mideast, the poll suggests otherwise. Only 12 percent expressed favorable views of the United States, even lower than the 15 percent that the Bush administration got in its final year.

According to Middle East analyst Marc Lynch, writing in Foreign Policy Magazine, Arabs have “grown frustrated at Obama's perceived failure to deliver on the promise of the 'new beginning' outlined in Cairo and had begun to lose hope in his ability to meaningfully change American policies towards the region.”

This year’s poll surveyed close to 4,000 people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates.

Only 16 percent declare that they are hopeful about administration policies, compared to 51 percent last year. Sixty-three percent declare themselves discouraged, up from 15 percent. On the other hand, there has been a significant drop in those with "very unfavorable" views of the United States – from 64% in 2008 to 47% today.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thats just terrible, I am going to lose sleep over this.

Anonymous said...

They can't blame Obama he's tried to make us a Muslim country but the people have rejected it.

Anonymous said...

10;41, no wonder the dumb@$$ "opposition" can't come up with any strong plans for recovery when they have supporters like you.

Anonymous said...

11:38 Since when does the party that's out of power have to provide idea's for the other side ? Just goes to show whiners can't lead !

Anonymous said...

12:21, the party out of power better provide ideas, or why should anyone vote them back into power? Of course, with the Republicans, they've offered no solutions, only obstruction, so you're right. That's why we shouldn't reward them with control of Congress.

Anonymous said...

1:43 The republicans would be smart to keep quiet and stroll into power. If they say what they would do that would buy time for the Dems because all you would hear from the media is the attacks on Repub Ideas instead of the failing economy . Or the Dems would use the Idea and claim it as their own .

Anonymous said...

1:43 I hope they obstruct this Congress and Administration ! Otherwise they wouldn't be leading in the polls .

Anonymous said...

12:21, 1:59, and 200, you all illustrate perfectly the problem with the political system. No wonder these guys don't go to capital hill to work for you. You think it's ok for them to go to D.C. and simply work to gain power. The American people win every time we have a free election. It is up to those elected officials to work together to turn out a quality product. Not simply fight for "power" every year.