7 Apr 2009
Poll shows lingering bias against Cold War foes
A new poll conducted by the Harris Interactive for the International Herald Tribune and France 24 has found that by and large respondents in the United States and five Western European countries continue to dislike the leaders of countries who were their adversaries in the Cold War.
Cuban President Fidel Castro was the least favorable leader, followed closely by Vladimir V. Putin, former president and current prime minister of Russia. Large numbers of Westerners also had “somewhat poor” or “very poor” opinions of the President Hu Jintao of China and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia.
The Messiah, American President Barack Obama, still holds positive rating of 80 percent while the least popular Western leader according to the poll is Silvio Berlusconi whose negative ratings reach 50 percent.
Interestingly, Pope Benedict XVI received very low positive ratings — only 42 percent — which is on par with Presidents Medvedev and Jintao.