World Wants Obama

The BBC ran an article September 9 saying, in reference to Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, "...people across the world want him in the White House...." The article presented the results of a BBC poll that found in 17 of 22 countries surveyed, "...people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Senator Obama wins."

In all of the 22 countries polled, the BBC said, the people would rather Obama win the presidency over Republican rival John McCain. The poll questioned more than 23,000 people from across the globe and was conducted by Globescan.

Specifically, Obama enjoyed spreads of anywhere from 9 percent in India to 82 percent in Kenya, his father's home country, with an average of almost half, 49 percent, preferring Obama. According to the BBC, forty percent of respondents did not take a position.

There is one question that must be asked: Why? Why would other nations really want an Obama presidency more than a McCain presidency? Is it because they truly believe their relations with the United States will improve? Or could it be because they are looking out for their own self interests and not America's interests or even global interests, expecting that an Obama presidency would be much more likely to produce an America willing to defer to international will?

Are the interests of these other nations necessarily the same as our interests? In some cases, they most certainly are. In others, they are not. One only has to look to the United Nations to realize that countries act to further their own national goals and not the goals of other nations or even the goals of the international community, if such a thing truly exists. So when citizens of other countries offer their opinion about whom we should choose as our president, who are they looking out for?