So Much for Hope and Change -- Arab Attitudes Toward Obama

In an earlier post I noted signs that indicated that China's Muslim minority was not pleased with our fine young president, despite all his hopey changey nonsense. Now John Zogby reports that Obama's reputation in the Arab world compares unfavorably with that of his predecessor.

A summary of the report notes:

Obama’s approval ratings are even lower than President Bush’s before he left office in 2008. They dropped from 26 percent to 12 percent in Morocco, 9 percent to 5 percent in Egypt, 16 percent to 10 percent in Jordan and 22 percent to 12 percent in the UAE (though they did improve in Saudi Arabia, and tick up slightly in Lebanon).

The full report is here.

A few things stood out in the full report. Arabs have a similarly low opinion of the UN. Disapproval of Obama's policies is especially low in the area of engagement with the Muslim world, which is one of the things he promised to emphasize. Obama has lower ratings than Iran's leadership [except in Saudi Arabia]. China has relatively high approval ratings throughout the region.