Acres of news space in the United States have been devoted to lamenting America’s falling reputation. Americans want desperately to be loved. But the country’s popularity has been steadily decreasing for the better part of this decade, particularly in Europe and Southwest Asia. Moreover, there are indications that blame for a future global economic slowdown may be pinned on its economic policies.

Most Americans believe that the next US president will mark a decisive shift for the better for the US’s worldwide popularity, especially if Democratic candidate Barack Obama is elected in November. Indians, however, appear unconvinced. The Chinese, Pakistanis, Arabs, Turks, and Mexicans are among those who seemingly share India’s wariness concerning Obama’s slogan of ‘Change’.

The latest Pew Global Attitudes survey report, released on June 12, measures attitudes on a wide spectrum of issues in 24 countries. The findings on India, particularly with regard to US policies and politics, are incisive. The sample size for India is small (2,056) and those polled are overwhelmingly urban, yet the consistency of the survey’s findings in India over the past years reinforces its value, as does the increased breadth of those polled in India. Additionally, Indians’ positions on issues can be accurately compared to the Chinese, Pakistanis and Brazilians, who were all represented disproportionately by urban residents in this survey.

After the US, India has the narrowest difference between those who have confidence in Barack Obama as US president and those who have confidence in John McCain, with Obama leading 33 to 28 per cent. Both, however, lag behind the incumbent president George W. Bush, whose confidence rating among Indians is still astonishingly high at 55 per cent. Indians are also the only people who rate Bush higher than Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Obama, meanwhile, fares worse only in Mexico and in four Muslim countries: Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan. After Poland and some Muslim countries, India has the largest percentage of people who think the US polls will bring a change for the worse in terms of US foreign policy (21 per cent).

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