Global Poll finds 30 of 35 nations favor Kerry

Knight Ridder Wire ServiceOnly 1 in 5 foreigners wants to see President Bush re-elected, according to surveys taken in 35 foreign countries this summer and released Wednesday.John Kerry would win a “global election” for president in 30 of the 35 countries, including overwhelming majorities among European allies and pluralities in the nine Latin American nations surveyed. Only in Poland, Nigeria and the Philippines was Bush preferred. India and Thailand were closely divided. On average, 46 percent of respondents favored Kerry to 20 percent for Bush. One-third of those surveyed said that they had no preference or it didn’t matter.Kerry did best in Norway (74 percent vs. 7 percent for Bush). He also won overwhelmingly in Germany (74 percent to 10 percent), France (64-5), the Netherlands (63-6), Italy (58-14) and Spain (45-7). In the United Kingdom, Kerry won 47 percent to 16 percent, in Japan 43-23 and Canada 61-16. The polls of 34,330 adults were conducted from May to August by GlobeScan, a Canadian research company, working with the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland in College Park and research institutes in each nation. The margin of error ranged from plus or minus 2.3 percentage points to 5 percentage points. The largest sample was in China (1,800) and the smallest in Peru (400). In 11 countries, including Brazil, China, Colombia and Venezuela, polling was limited to urban areas.On a second question, a majority of those surveyed also had a negative reaction to Bush’s foreign policy. A majority or plurality in 30 countries said Bush’s policy made them feel worse about the United States. On average, 53 percent of all surveyed said “worse” and 19 percent said “better.”GlobeScan President Doug Miller said the findings may reflect some endemic anti-American sentiment. But he said that recent surveys in five nations by the Pew Research Center showed a sharp drop in the favorable views toward the United States since 1999. The five were the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Morocco and Turkey. Only Russians viewed the United States more favorably. Steven Kull, director of PIPA, said it was difficult to assess how much weight those in each country gave to U.S. policy overall, the Iraq war or local factors in stating an opinion on Bush and foreign policy.Among countries that have contributed troops to the Iraq war, most favored Kerry and said their view of U.S. policy had worsened. Bush’s strongest support was in the Philippines, (57-32) which has received significant U.S. aid to combat terrorist groups. In Venezuela, there was an even split (33-34) on U.S. policy, reflecting that country’s sharply polarized population. Government restrictions on surveys meant no Arab countries were included in the polling. In the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia, 57 percent favored Kerry while 35 percent favored the reelection of BushTo read more on the poll, go to www.pipa.org.