US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said on Wednesday. All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain. And in 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Obama wins. More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from India to Australia, and across Africa, Europe and South America. The margin in favour of Obama ranged from 9 percent in India to 82 percent in Kenya, while an average of 49 percent across the 22 countries preferred Obama compared with 12 percent preferring McCain. Some four in 10 did not take a view. “Large numbers of people around the world clearly like what Barack Obama represents,” said GlobeScan chairman, Doug Miller. “Given how negative America's international image is at present, it is quite striking that only one in five think a McCain presidency would improve on the Bush administration's relations with the world.” In the United States, three polls taken since the Republican party convention ended on Thursday show McCain with a lead of 1 to 4 percentage points – within the margin of error – and two others show the two neck-and-neck. The countries most optimistic that an Obama presidency would improve relations were America's NATO allies -- Canada (69 percent), France (62 percent), Germany (61 percent), Britain (54 percent), Italy (64 percent – as well as Australia (62 percent), Kenya (87 percent) and Nigeria (71 percent). A similar BBC/Globescan poll conducted ahead of the 2004 US presidential election found that, of 35 countries polled, 30 would have preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry, rather than the incumbent George Bush, who was elected. At the time, the Philippines, Nigeria and Poland were among the few countries to favor Bush's reelection. Wednesday's poll showed that all three now favor Obama over McCain.
