Poll: Obama not so popular in Middle East now
Published: August 5, 2010
President Obama seems to have lost his sheen in the Middle East. A poll released today shows the Arab public is much less enamored with Obama this year than they were when he first took office.
A University of Maryland survey last month of nearly 4,000 people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates shows a precipitous drop in optimism about America's role in the Middle East. Just 16 percent said they were hopeful about Obama's policies in their corner of the world, compared to 51 percent last year.
And the attitude holds true for Obama himself with 62 percent saying they viewed him negatively. Only 23 percent said that in April and May 2009.
Interestingly, that change in favor doesn't seem to have happened because of Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan, which has led to his worst approval ratings at home. Asked what most disappointed them, 61 percent said Obama's stance toward Israel and Palestine. Afghanistan came in a distant fourth with 4 percent ranking Obama's policies there as the most disappointing.
More bad news for the Obama Administration when it comes to Iran. While there was a narrowing last year of the Arab public's support of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's quest for nuclear weapons, that attitude has shifted substantially this year. Fifty-seven percent said it would be positive for the Middle East if Iran became a nuclear power. That's up from 29 percent last year.
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