Can we say that America's Image has suffered in the last 6 years?

[Philosoraptor]

Will we ever be able to travel abroad without our "I'm a Canadian" t-shirts again?

I think we can safely say that our image has not fared too well in the Arab world, and none too well in many other corners. We've always been proud of our so called image, and most folks have no clue as to the long history of ugliness and ill will we've garnered.

I think the number one problem in the perception of our nation is our obviously insane and unqualified puppet president. The world's worst orator, world's worst diplomat, worst representative imaginable. The worst blunderer and fuck up we could possibly pick up off the street is our face to the world. Its a no brainer.

How many people have died since this gorilla stomped onto the world stage? How many people has he pissed off and enraged and made permanent enemies of? How many have been tortured, imprisoned, crippled, how many more to come in the next two years?

In 6 short years our nation has been reduced to a sick joke and a serious threat in the eyes of the world.

[Virginia Dare]

1. More like shit canned....n/t

[AndyA]

2. Our image is about as good as the girl in high school who used to

wear tight sweaters...

[Fridays Child]

4. A better school metaphor might be the playground bully.

Besides, it's probably better not to affirm the old, negative gender-based stereotypes. Just my opinion. :)

[tocqueville]

6. mmm in France those girls are very popular.... nt

[bryant69]

3. It is problemattic

But I think the rest of the world understands us a bit better than we bother to understand them. Obviously there are going to be poeple who hate us always, but those same people probably hated us just as much under Clinton. On the other hand, people who liked clinton (and there were a lot of them) might well like a new administration, if that administration curtails the stupidity of the Bush administration.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Vincardog]

5. You seem to be surprised. Do you not know That that was their plan?

How can you imagine that the blunders and insults were anything but intentional provocations? aWoL is an end timer. He has said he wants to start the crusade. He is in fact the leader (Figuratively) of a death cult whose whole purpose is to instigate and profit from a permanent state of war.

HE being also a Dominionist, if it broke out in MAD and everyone dies so much the better.

[mtnsnake]

7. Our bad image has been happening for a lot longer than the last 6 years

but Bush perfected it in 6 and cemented our legacy for years to come.

[neoblues]

8. We Can Safely Say: We Are Screwed

Think Anger/Hatred/Distrust ranging to Offense/Dislike/Mistrust. Definitely add it the bit about unpredictable verging on insane. Toss in imperial ambitions. Lust for power. Greed. Oil.

Yup. We're nothing more than a sick joke--a dangerous sick fu_k in the eyes of the rest of the world** (not, by the way, that most of them are really the innocent, noble, honest, rosy, humane world citizens they'd like to imagine themselves to be either--but then again, most of them never pretended to be)

**Thank You, George W. Bush (Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, Neocons, Republican Congress, Republicans, Conservatives, Christian Right, Backwash***, Etc...)

***From Stephen Colbert's performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner:"Colbert then segued into a segment poking fun at Bush's sinking approval ratings":

"Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32 percent approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in 'reality'. And reality has a well-known liberal bias. ... Sir, pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it's two-thirds empty. There's still some liquid in that glass, is my point. But I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash."

[Fleshdancer]

9. on the bright side...

So many people in other countries are smart enough and kind enough to seperate the American people from this administration. I'm not sure why after the 2004 election, but they do and I'm happy about that.

I still get angry thinking about how this admin wasted the global support after 9/11.

[BooScout]

10. Yes you can still travel.....and live abroad....

Thankfully many people in this world are smart enough to realize that not all Americans walk lock step with Bush. I live abroad and I have found the easiest way to put people at ease and break the ice when I first meet them is to immediately state that yes, I'm an American and I never voted for Bush and yes I cannot stand his politics and policies. Believe it or not, I am much more anti-Bush than people I meet here in the UK. I actually still meet people that want to pursue the American Dream and move to America....gobsmacks me everytime.

[otohara]

11. The World Thinks We're Stupid

and based on the WMD Harris Poll - they're right!!!

(kudos to Assoicated Press for finally reporting on this 18 day old poll and waiting until Washington on vacation to finally release info)

[mmonk]

12. Any reputable reputation we had has effectively been erased.

[tocqueville]

13. some answers to your questions... in all sincerity

travel abroad ? yes : in most countries people can make the difference between a turist, a visitor, somebody coming for a job and an administration. Of course if you wear fatigues or work for Blackwater it can be somewhat problematic... But expect people to make nasty remarks about your administration. As soon you agree with them there won't be any problems.

The image has been different in different countries, more negative in the Arab world. In Europe, it's the post 9/11 image which is the worse, even if there was a "plus peak" let say during the end of 2001. So it's more 4 years than 6. The image started to degrade with the Iraq intervention due to the general arrogance and collapsed totally with Guantanamo and Abu Grahib. The current attitude towards the Lebanon crisis is devastating. It was expected of the US to put a brake on Israel, not to support it like a hooligan.

The problem is that the current situation shows ONLY the dark side of America. It's different from the Vietnam war where many countries frowned at the quagmire and Nixon's adventures, but when there was a sense of another America fighting it's demons (peace movement, journalists at Watergate, Dylan, Pete Seeger etc...) and OVERCOMING them by electing Carter. Today people sense that there isn't any counter-alternative. It's a "Columbine world" where Americans are a bunch of poorly educated bigoted loonies (all the religious stuff in the US is considered in Europe as a kind of mental illness) who poison the planet with their SUVs and have a tendency to gun down the Mc Donald next door on Saturday nights just for kicks. A nation of Limbaughs, O'Reillys and Coulters, if you want. The progressive America isn't seen at all, the Democratic party doesn't exist (even Kerry is considered as a Republican lite with good manners) and the few voices in the wilderness like Cindy Sheehan or Dixie Chicks or even Bruce Springsteen are not enough. They are hardly noticed at all.

The image of America (the good one, the old one) can only be restored with a President who really kicks ass, meaning someone who initiate a RUPTURE with the past policies and this on most internal or external political areas (including Israel). What the US needs is a De Gaulle, a Churchill, a new Roosevelt. Sadly no one is at the horizon right now, only a couple of "decent" guys. Maybe the country has to sink further in such a deep shit crisis that such a person arises. The worse is that those kind of situations bring up the Hitlers too... I mean teh real ones not the pale copies à la Dubya...

[Jim Warren]

14. Pretty much throughout the entire world, yes, but

one thing for sure, in the Muslim world it is said: the night in March of '03 the US began the Iraq invasion, a thousand "Osama"s were born.

[DinahMoeHum]

15. It goes without saying. . .

n/t