Poll shows Obama atop list of most respected

By John C. Freed

PARIS: President Barack Obama has catapulted past the Dalai Lama as the most respected world leader among West Europeans and Americans, according to a poll released Friday.

It was Obama's first appearance in the bimonthly survey, "World Leaders," which was first conducted in November by Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and the all-news television channel France 24. Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20.

His ratings contrast sharply with those of his predecessor, George W. Bush, whose Republican Party was routed in the U.S. elections in November. Earlier results indicated that Bush was considered powerful but was not respected. The new survey shows Obama as the No. 1 world leader on both fronts.

The shift was dramatic across the board, with the smallest change occurring in the United States, where 34 percent held a very good or somewhat good opinion of Bush.

Now, 71 percent hold a very good or somewhat good view of Obama. The shift was largest in France, where Bush was viewed favorably by 5 percent of the populace, compared with 88 percent for Obama.

Obama's name was the only new one on the list of 19 world leaders whom respondents were asked to rate. Approval of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, rose to 77 percent, from 71 in the previous poll, but it was not enough to match Obama's 80 percent. Ratings for other world leaders stayed more or less the same.

Those surveyed also were asked to consider how much power each leader has. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia was second to Bush in the previous survey and remained second to Obama in the current one.

Putin was considered to have a great deal of influence or some influence by 69 percent of those surveyed, up 6 points. Next are President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

In the first survey, Merkel had the highest ranking when popularity and influence are averaged, but Obama far surpassed her in the new survey, 82 percent to 57 percent. Although her combined figure remained the same as the previous survey, the Dalai Lama edged slightly ahead of her as No. 2 worldwide, with 60 percent.

Obama's results in Western Europe are not surprising, given his extreme popularity in a pre-election survey conducted by Harris for the IHT and France 24. The question is whether he is experiencing a honeymoon effect.

"The next edition will allow us to see if people remain infatuated with the new president of the United States," said Patrick Van Bloeme, chief executive for France at Harris Interactive, noting that the survey was conducted in the 12 days immediately before Obama's inauguration.

The poll was conducted online from Jan. 8 to 19 by Harris Interactive in partnership with France 24 and the International Herald Tribune. It included 6,299 adults, aged 16 to 64, in Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the United States and adults, aged 18 to 64, in Italy. The data for age, gender, education, region and Internet propensity were weighted when necessary to bring them into line with current proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was applied to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

Harris Interactive relied on the Harris Poll Online panel as the primary sample source for the survey.

The panel consists of potential respondents who have been recruited through online, telephone, mail and in-person approaches. Because the sample is not random but is based on those who agreed to participate, no statistical estimate of sampling error can be calculated.

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