The Opinionated Bastard

He he. So true. I guess any positive number is good news for their campaign.

I care.

Because you see, some of us are involved in international business, and childish assholes who think that being an “ugly American” is cool make it harder for us to make a living.

Grow up.

I’ve traveled quite extensively as well, and I have always found people in other countries to be wildly misinformed about US politics. So the opinion of people in New Zealand doesn’t carry much weight with me.

The most interesting part of this is that the Kerry campaign chose to trumpet this, which is kind of feeble…What’s next? Polls of schoolchildren?

Funny, I’ve found people in other countries to be much better informed than many Americans about issues such as foreign affairs. They don’t rot their brains with “American Idoltry” and the latest meaningless trivia about Scott Petersen.

For instance, most foreign businesspeople with whom I come into contact agree with the plain fact that how their countries are perceived in the world can help or hinder their international business efforts.

Whereas, here on an American forum, it’s “If they don’t agree with me, they’re wrong, so screw them.” Pride and arrogance used to be a sin. I guess Rush “Talent on loan from God” Limbaugh made it a sin NOT to be prideful and arrogant.

We’re not talking about foreign affairs, we’re not talking about Rush Limbaugh (who I don’t listen to), we’re talking about US Politics. Do you really think that people in New Zealand sit around discussing US domestic issues such as Social Security, Health Insurance, etc?

Do you think that the New Zealander’s read any of Bush’s or Kerry’s speeches?

Not in my experience. Foreign opinions of US elections tends to be based purely on foreign affairs mixed with their own local politics, and generally in my experience negative towards the current president no matter what party he/she is from.

6 years ago, I had to listen to the Malaysians rail about Gore for an hour because he came to their county and praised some radical islamic guy, while slamming their elected government.

Anyways, this poll is meaningless, which was why I chose to mock it. If you want a real discussion of how informed people in other countries view the candidates, the council on foreign relations has interviews with some top people in other countries:

http://www.cfr.org/campaign2004/views_brief.php

By in large, they worry about Kerry’s protectionism and Bush’s cowboyism.