World opinion of the US

In a recent BBC poll, 30,000 people in 28 countries were asked to rate a list of countries as to whether their effect on the world was "mostly positive" or "mostly negative."

The U.S. rated 46% positive. This is up from 28% positive in 2007 and 42% positive in 2009, while negatives are down from 43% in 2009 to 34% in 2010.

Can we call this "the Obama effect?" I think so, more than any other single factor.

Here's where we stand in the world's view as to the countries that are considered to have a mostly positive effect on the world:

Germany 59%, Japan 53%, U.K. 52%, Canada 51%, France 49%, U.S. 46%, China 41%.

Broken down by the response of individual countries: Among Germans, the positive opinion of the U.S. jumped from 18% to 39% and in Russia from 7% to 25% from 2009 to 2010.

On the other hand, these are disturbing: Pakistan has only a 9% positive/52%negative opinion of the U.S. Mexicans rate us 13% positive/49% negative; and Turks rate us 13%/70%.

Ralph