Obama and World Opinion

While the main media has been trumpheting the new found popularity of the US since Obama got elected the reaction is not consistent world-wide. The approval for the US went up primarily in western Europe. In some other places the situation is different. As a continent, Africa benefited from Bush's policies and enjoined tremendous economic growth as was the case in India. Eastern Europe also had an appreciated for Bush.

But the country with the biggest change was Germany, where Bush was despiced and Obama greatly admired. But the situation is changing quickly. Der Spiegel, the most prominent magazine in Germany, is blunt: Obama lied to Europe. He is following the Bush plan on Climate Change. And his niceness is not producing any improvements in any relations with other countries. Der Spiegel thinks that he should adopt some Bush like toughness.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662822,00.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,661678,00.html