Election 2008: The World Weighs In

The Guardian (a UK post) recently published this survey of various countries throughout the world. If the people of these respective countries were to vote in OUR election, who would win? Well, the article tells you the answer, so go ahead and read it yourself. It's pretty interesting. The article continues on about how the information was collected, so you may want to consider that as well in respect of the findings.

However, I've seen a couple other similar surveys with pretty much the same findings, so it wasn't really the big question of WHO they'd vote for that surprised me, but some of the answers to other questions asked, such as:

How would you describe the actual relations between your country and the USA?

% of from each country reporting relations are positive:

Canada: 43%

France: 38%

Switzerland: 20%

Poland: 43%

Japan: 16%

Mexico: 23%

Great Britain: 49%

% of from each country reporting relations are neutral or tense: 

Canada: 43%

France: 64%

Switzerland: 73%

Poland: 53%

Japan: 81%

Mexico: 71%

Great Britain: 48% 

Thoughts?

I first am surprised that Japan hates us so much! haha. I mean I always figured they loved Americans, which I think they DO like our pop culture, but maybe not so much our methods politically? Japanese people are smart folks! They go to school for like 20 hrs a day, 6 days a week! So listen up to them! :) Maybe they are mad about those nasty bombs we dropped...I would be too! They were unnecessary...I digress.

I am equally pleased that GB doesn't hate us terribly. In fact, I think they have one of the more positive outlooks on us, but still, consider that 49% favoring us isn't AMAZING either. 

Anyways, I hope we can take from this that we have some foreign relations to work on. This is one of the most important things for me in the next 4 years, because I truly believe we've been a little arrogant over the past few years. Example: As soon as the Iraq War was announced, there was quite a bit of backlash from the French. The citizens disagreed with our decision, and the government wanted no part in the war. Well, what did middle-Americans do? They started boycotting French goods, such as champagne, and called the French all sorts of sissy names, accusing them of being wooses, simply because they didn't want to get involved in the debacle that most Americans now feel was problematic. No offense, but the French have seen their fair share of the devastation war; WWII took part on their very own soil. I don't think it's a mistake to shy away from war if you've experienced it that closely. Surely we did too, but not as Europe did. Anyways, my point is, there is going to come a day in which we can't do this on our own anymore. We're going to be strapped, and desperate for the assistance of allies, but it may not arrive if we haven't taken care to secure good relations.

Just saying!