Boehner to resign from Congress?

[flockofseagulls104]

I don't happen to share your opinion that our reputation overseas has benefitted one bit from anything she or Obama have done.

And as usual, you're basing your opinion on what your handlers at Fox News think rather than any actual facts. Here's survey results from Pew, one of the most widely respected public opinion pollsters, measuring popularity of the U.S. in various foreign countries during this century. Here's some salient numbers:

France: 42% favorable in 2008, 75% in 2014.
Germany: 30%/51%
Spain: 33%/60%
UK: 53%/66%
South Korea: 58%/82%
Indonesia: 37%/59%
Mexico: 47%/63%

You would think that Israel would really have a lower opinion of the U.S. under this administration considering all the horrible things we're doing to them and how your buddies Limbaugh and Hannity get in a tizzy every time they think about it but that doesn't seem to be the case either. The U.S. was already held in high regard in Israel (78% favorable in 2007; there are no 2008 figures) but that's increased to 84%.

Not surprisingly, the main country in which U.S. popularity has dropped under Obama is Russia.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/07/14/cha ... can-brand/

I've also got the 2015 figures here, but there's no year by year comparison so you'll have to do some flipping back and forth.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/06/23/1-a ... bal-image/

You don't think this had anything to do with the diplomatic efforts Hillary Clinton made to try to repair the damage that Bush caused? But the Republicans want to go right back to the Bush playbook and thumb their noses at those 112 countries Hillary visited because it makes Republicans feel good to threaten to bomb the daylights out of countries if they don't do what we want.

But facts don't interest you Flock. You've got your opinions, unsupported as they may be.

Since when is an opinion poll a fact?

I think a fact is that 4 embassy staff got murdered in Libya, and it got blamed on some stupid little video that no one ever saw. To me, a fact is that Islamic Terrorism is on the rise and we are ignoring it. To me, a fact is that Iran has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, and we have pretty much paved the way for them to develop a nuclear bomb. To me, a fact is that the Taliban have retaken control of Afghanistan and ISIS has pretty much taken control of Iraq.

But it's nice that that people like us.

[silverscreenselect]

I don't happen to share your opinion that our reputation overseas has benefitted one bit from anything she or Obama have done.


Since when is an opinion poll a fact?

I think a fact is that 4 embassy staff got murdered in Libya, and it got blamed on some stupid little video that no one ever saw. To me, a fact is that Islamic Terrorism is on the rise and we are ignoring it. To me, a fact is that Iran has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, and we have pretty much paved the way for them to develop a nuclear bomb. To me, a fact is that the Taliban have retaken control of Afghanistan and ISIS has pretty much taken control of Iraq.

But it's nice that that people like us.

Well, since your statement was that our reputation hadn't benefitted from anything Hillary or Obama had done, then an opinion poll from a respected pollster like Pew is the best way we have to measure how that reputation has changed over the years. And it's clear that in country after country, their opinion of the United States has improved, in many cases remarkably, since the end of the Bush administration. You might argue how much of that credit Hillary deserves, but you can't deny those figures. And I've yet to see anyone of your buddies at Fox or any of your other sources produce any polling data that suggests otherwise. These Pew Global surveys are highly respected.

One thing you'll notice is that the opinion of the United States in the Middle East is very low, now as it had been under the Bush administration. So, you're right to say that our perception in those countries hasn't improved under Obama. But, although the polling data is admittedly sketchy, it does show that the opinion in which we're held in the Middle East dropped precipitously under the Bush Administration and hasn't improved that much if any. Turkey 52% favorable in 2000, dropping to 9% in 2007 and 19% today. Jordan 25% in 2002, 1% in 2003, 12% today. I'm no fan of Obama's, but it's a good bet that a large part of the reason we're so unpopular in those countries is that he has pursued a strategy of drone attacks and other military action that understandably upsets the local populace. I doubt many of the Republicans would change that aspect of U.S. foreign policy.

And I'm not sure what Hillary could have done to prevent any of what you're upset about. She certainly didn't control troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our failures in those countries were largely set in place by Bush (who essentially installed the ruling administrations), and left there by Obama. And, unless we are prepared to keep a lot of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan forever, there's not much we can do to prevent an ISIS or Taliban without strong local support, none of which we've ever had.

And if you're upset about ISIS, then you should be glad that Putin is ordering airstrikes against them.

[BackInTex]

And if you're upset about ISIS, then you should be glad that Putin is ordering airstrikes against them.

Mixed emotions. Glad someone is ordering airstrikes. Not glad Russia has taken over the position as World Leader. But that's what Obama wanted, for us (the US) to not be a leader, not to be great. He is succeeding.

[silverscreenselect]

And if you're upset about ISIS, then you should be glad that Putin is ordering airstrikes against them.

Mixed emotions. Glad someone is ordering airstrikes. Not glad Russia has taken over the position as World Leader. But that's what Obama wanted, for us (the US) to not be a leader, not to be great. He is succeeding.

Bush showed the world how great we were in Iraq and Afghanistan. Look what that got us.

[BackInTex]

an opinion poll from a respected pollster like Pew is the best way we have to measure

Oh! You like polls? Here's one....

Fox News most-trusted TV news/commentary source: poll


There you go.

[flockofseagulls104]

And if you're upset about ISIS, then you should be glad that Putin is ordering airstrikes against them.

Mixed emotions. Glad someone is ordering airstrikes. Not glad Russia has taken over the position as World Leader. But that's what Obama wanted, for us (the US) to not be a leader, not to be great. He is succeeding.

Bush showed the world how great we were in Iraq and Afghanistan. Look what that got us.

They were in decent shape until Obama abandoned all effort in both places. No matter your obsession with what Bush did or didn't do, Obama has made it worse.

[silverscreenselect]

They were in decent shape until Obama abandoned all effort in both places. No matter your obsession with what Bush did or didn't do, Obama has made it worse.

They were in "decent shape" as long as we kept a bunch of soldiers there and paid off a lot of people not to shoot at us. Now that we're not paying them, not surprisingly a number of them are supporting ISIS.

Neither the Iraqis nor the Afghans showed any willingness to fight, even when they outnumbered the enemy by as much as 10 to 1. And nether Malicki nor Karzai has ever had widespread popular public support.

The Republican (and apparently your) strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan was just to keep pumping money and stationing troops there until at some undisclosed future date things would magically stabilize. That's almost the same strategy as the alchemists used to transform lead into gold. We had troops in Iraq for 11 years and in Afghanistan for 14 years. So what would you propose we do, just keep them there until the end of time?