Too bad Americans are so insular because it seems the global jury is in on the U.S. Presidential Election.
If the World Could Vote is a fascinating website. It summarizes in a very nice visualization the results of a large number of international Gallup polls designed to indicate a global preference for either Barack Obama or John McCain as the next American President. For countries in which data was gathered, you can just left-click on the map to get a breakdown of results. The detailed results and a summary of the methodology are also freely available through the site.
Of the surveys conducted, it would appear that those who do have an opinion are largely behind Obama, by a factor of four.
There's also another website run by The Economist that suggests Obama leads McCain worldwide by ten to one. (Which begs the question: what's causing the difference between the two reports?) A less formal site also indicates a 10:1 proportion for Obama worldwide.
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that this kind of work will be widely reported in the USA; America as a whole tends to be a little too insular to even care about these kinds of international results. Still, doesn't it make sense that - if these poll results are at all reliable - an Obama Presidency would go far to calm the nerves of an anxious global community? And shouldn't that be a factor in the American voter's decision-making on election day? After all, only about one in twenty of humankind is American.
Let's hope it really is a Democrat's world after all.
If the World Could Vote is a fascinating website. It summarizes in a very nice visualization the results of a large number of international Gallup polls designed to indicate a global preference for either Barack Obama or John McCain as the next American President. For countries in which data was gathered, you can just left-click on the map to get a breakdown of results. The detailed results and a summary of the methodology are also freely available through the site.
Of the surveys conducted, it would appear that those who do have an opinion are largely behind Obama, by a factor of four.
There's also another website run by The Economist that suggests Obama leads McCain worldwide by ten to one. (Which begs the question: what's causing the difference between the two reports?) A less formal site also indicates a 10:1 proportion for Obama worldwide.
Unfortunately, it's unlikely that this kind of work will be widely reported in the USA; America as a whole tends to be a little too insular to even care about these kinds of international results. Still, doesn't it make sense that - if these poll results are at all reliable - an Obama Presidency would go far to calm the nerves of an anxious global community? And shouldn't that be a factor in the American voter's decision-making on election day? After all, only about one in twenty of humankind is American.
Let's hope it really is a Democrat's world after all.
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