Obama impresses abroad, depresses at home

A prophet is not without honour, said Jesus, save in his own country. Now, even Barack Obama's most passionate supporters would not liken him to the Son of God.

But how else to interpret the contradictory findings of two polls released yesterday?

One, conducted on behalf of the BBC World Service, suggests people around the world are warming again to the United States under its new leader.

The other, by the Pew Research Centre in Washington DC, shows Americans more down on their own Government than at almost any time in the last half-century.

The improved global opinion of the US, as evidenced by the BBC's poll carried out in 28 countries, was to be expected after the departure of the much-disliked George W. Bush.

For the first time since the poll's inception in 2005, The US is seen as a positive force in the world. It is proof, were any needed, that the "Obama effect" is real.

At home, the story is different. The President's personal approval ratings, around 50 per cent, have held up well (though a far cry from the 75 per cent or more when he took office 15 months ago).

But the number of Americans who trust Washington has dropped to an abysmal 22 per cent; three out of every four say they are "frustrated" or "angry" with the federal Government.

If ever the climate was propitious for government here, it was after the financial debacle of 2008. Without state intervention, it is widely agreed, the Great Recession would probably have become another Great Depression.

And Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have duly obliged - with a US$787 billion ($1.1 trillion) stimulus package, state support for banks, the biggest healthcare reform since the 1960s and, it seems likely, with a regulatory clamp-down on Wall Street.

Andrew Kohut, the director of the Pew Centre, attributes much of the sour mood to a weak economy and high unemployment, the partisan atmosphere in Washington and what he described as an "epic discontent" among the people for their elected representatives in Congress and the White House.

Nowhere is the discontent more visible than in the emergence of the Tea Party movement, a prime mover behind rallies against healthcare reform. The Tea Parties are proof suspicion of government is hard-wired into the American collective psyche.

April 1775 saw the battles of Concord and Lexington, the first military clashes of the war for independence from Britain, to which Americans like to trace their opposition to the tyranny of distant government.

Yesterday happened to be the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. Former President Bill Clinton, occupant of the White House then, has not been alone in warning that today's surge of anti-government sentiment could lead to violence.

But convictions forged by history can change. The BBC poll showed that early this year the country most favourably viewed around the world was Germany. What a difference 70 years makes. Who knows, maybe by 2080, Americans will have come to love their government.

- INDEPENDENT