World poll: Image of U.S. declines

Worldwide approval of U.S. leadership dipped considerably during President Barack Obama’s fourth year in office — but it increased in some countries, including Mexico, according to a poll Wednesday.

The median approval rating for U.S. leadership for 130 countries was 41 percent in 2012, down 8 percentage points from the 49 percent approval during Obama’s first year in office, Gallup found - noting the America’s standing is still generally higher than it was during President George W. Bush’s final years in office.


Gallup asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the job performance of the leadership of the United States?”

“This shift suggests that the president and the new secretary of state may not find global audiences as receptive to the U.S. agenda as they have in the past. In fact, they may even find even once-warm audiences increasingly critical,” Gallup’s Julie Ray wrote.

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In Mexico, U.S. leadership had a 37 percent approval — an 11 percentage point increase from 2011, according to Gallup.

“Some of the increase may stem from Mexicans’ optimism about future U.S.-Mexican relations after Obama welcomed then-President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto to the White House in late November 2012 and pledged cooperation on trade and immigration reform,” Ray wrote.

In Europe, U.S. leadership dipped from 42 percent in 2011 to 36 percent for last year.

Ray wrote that the data suggests that “the U.S. was likely shouldering some of the blame for the ongoing financial crisis in Europe.”

Despite the lower numbers, U.S. approval ratings for the most part remain stronger than they were at the end of the last Bush administration, Gallup said.

In Europe, median approval of U.S. leadership was still twice as high in 2012 as it was during the last years of the Bush administration and in Asia the 37 percent median approval last year was still higher than any rating during the Bush administration.

The Gallup poll included face-to-face and telephone interviews with 1,000 individuals aged 15 and older in 130 countries last year, and pollsters said that with 95 percent confidence that the margin of error is as high as plus or minus 4.8 percentage points, reflecting the influence of data weighting.

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