I posted this in response to an email about the world-wide polls about how far ahead Kerry is in world opinion.

This isn’t new, although perhaps now it’s news worthy since the election is coming up. I think I heard in a similar report that worldwide Kerry would win 5-1 over Bush. This is (approximately) shown by the average gap when ahead in the results below: Bush about 9.5, Kerry about 45.

But this really shouldn’t suprise anyone. The rest of the world has had a gun pointed at it and been told “You’re either with us or against us.” Even as the “friendly neighbour to the north” I sure don’t feel safe, especially with Bill O’Reilly threatening to invade Canada :)

Another interesting study recently found that 70% of Americans thought it was important to have a good image throughout the world. 50% of people were unaware that the worldwide image has dropped considerably over the last 4 years. I guess they all watched Fox.

Now, I of course am not advocating that the world be able to vote in the US election, although considering the power the US wields it seems unproportional. However it is an important piece of information that US voters should consider. This is important both because there are likely some intelligent people in the other 95% of the world population and when people don’t like you they are less likely to give you what you want. Considering the US can’t use it’s military against the entire world at the same time to enforce it’s will, it’s got to have some real allies. The more extreme the US becomes the more extreme, in the other direction, other governments around the world will become as the will of their peoples keep moving away from the US. This seems like a very natural consequence and progression.