So predictable

Huffpo has another beaut of a headline--"10 Out Of 15 Countries Say US Not Trusted To "Act Responsibly"". In other words, "we suck" in nice, neat tabular form. Arianna lifted that headline from her glass half empty soulmates at Think Progress, who share the blame. The survey was taken before the VT shooting, by the way.

For those in the habit of glancing at headlines and the first couple of paragraphs (or sentences) such might reinforce the conventional wisdom that Bush has trashed our worldwide rep. For those who actually read links, surprise, surprise, the headlines are rather misleading:

“This survey shows that despite the negative views of US foreign policy, publics around the world do not want the United States to disengage from international affairs, but rather to participate in a more cooperative and multilateral fashion,” Kull said.

One more:

Despite the widespread belief that the United States should not be the world’s preeminent leader and that it plays the role of world policeman more than it should, countries express mixed views about whether the United States should reduce its military presence around the world.

Read further and you'll find other head-scratchers, which certainly leaves the impression these world polls are really just emotional gripe sessions.

No real surprises here, especially after considering that some of the worst opinions came from Russia, France, South America and some Muslim countries. The positive responses came largely from Eastern Europe, Israel, and Australia. Fact is, nobody likes the Big Cheese--it's cool to hate the boss. There's a lot of animosity, jealousy, and people are sitting on ready to knock us on our butts, including politicians using us as a punching bag to garner votes.

Neither should we be surprised that Think Progress and Huffington Post chose to highlight the negative. It's just more evidence of how some people are heavily invested in failure. At least of the short term variety.