Monday, September 17, 2012

Susan Rice Fact check: "Jake, we're not less popular." Zogby Poll: Obama and US have worse rating than George Bush era in Arab countries, 7/2011 poll

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9/16/12, "'This Week' Transcript: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice," ABC News Transcript


p. 2, "TAPPER: Look at this map, if you would. There have been protests around the world over the last several days. And President Obama pledged to repair America's relationships with the Muslim world. Why does the U.S. seem so impotent? And why is the U.S. even less popular today in some of these Muslim and Arab countries than it was four years ago?

RICE: Jake, we're not impotent. We're not even less popular, to challenge that assessment. I don't know on what basis you make that judgment. But let me -- let me point..."...

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July 13, 2011, "Poll: Views of U.S., Obama Drop Sharply Across Arab World," National Journal, A. Van Hollen

"President Obama has failed to live up to the expectations he created in the Arab world, according to a new poll released by IBOPE Zogby International and the Arab American Institute Foundation. The poll also noted that most Arab countries view the U.S. less favorably today than they did during the last year of the Bush administration.

When President Bush left office, 9 percent of Egyptians had a favorable attitude towards the United States. After Barack Obama was elected, that number jumped to 30 percent. But today, only 5 percent of Egyptians surveyed said they have a favorable opinion of the United States and its president. Similar figures in Morocco, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates illustrate that the initial optimism in the region has been eclipsed by a widespread sense of disappointment.

“President Obama did not create the problems, but he created the expectation that the problems would be solved,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. “He sent a number of signals early on that U.S. policy would change: in his inauguration speech, in his al-Arabiya interview, and in his appointment of [former Senate Majority Leader] George Mitchell as special envoy,” said Zogby. “By the time of his speech in Cairo, the favorable ratings of the U.S. were at their highest ever.”

But figures from six Arab nations tell the same story: People in the Arab world are frustrated by the lack of follow-up. “You get credit for trying after 100 days, but after two years you don’t get credit for trying; you get credit for producing, and

  • the production isn’t there,” Zogby said."...


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