1 Nov : Obama-mania is sweeping the world the Democratic Presidential candidate is much more popular than Republican rival John McCain in surveys of people around the world.
But underlying Obama’s global popularity is a lack of understanding of his ideas, experts say.
Obama is the preferred candidate of 42 per cent of the people in the world, while only 12 per cent would vote for McCain if they had the chance, according to a BBC survey of 2,500 people in 22 countries.
In Europe, Obama is particularly popular: more than 80 per cent of Germans, French and Dutch have a favorable view of him, according to a poll sponsored by German Marshall Fund.
By comparison, McCain’s top score in Europe was in Portugal, where 35 per cent liked him.But Max Wolff, a lecturer at the New School University in New York, says there is a huge gap between Obama’s image abroad and the reality of his policy ideas.
Outgoing President George W. Bush "has become the incarnation of the worst of America as a religious crazy, unsophisticated, heavily armed child of the worst European peasantry," Wolff said.
On the other hand, he said, "Obama’s image in Europe for those who like America is that he personifies all that is good in the US."For them, Obama represents "a young, hopeful, multiracial society, an international creative child of Europe; useful, energetic."
"But the two visions are fantasy," Wolff said. "The reality has nothing to do with that, although both of those elements are in the US."