Translated By Ron Argentati

6 October 2008



Germany - Frankfurter Rundschau - Original Article (German)

Survey: The World Would Elect Obama

If the entire world were allowed to participate in the November 4th U.S. elections, Democrat Barack Obama would have a clear majority according to a world-wide survey carried out by the American magazine, "Reader’s Digest".

In Germany, Obama is far ahead of his Republican opponent, John McCain, with 85 percent support. That majority is only surpassed in the Netherlands, where 92 percent of those surveyed expressed a preference for Obama.

In countries like France, Spain and Australia, the preference for Obama is around 75 percent. McCain’s percentage of potential votes runs between a low of 6 percent (Taiwan) to a high of 26 percent in both India and South Africa. Obama’s “weak” point overseas is Russia, where only 52 percent say they would vote for him.

McCain had a clear edge only in his homeland. In that portion of the survey, 38 percent of Americans expressed a preference for McCain, while 36 percent would vote for Obama.

Reader’s Digest polled 17,000 people in 17 countries on all continents for their November edition. The international survey company Synovate conducted the poll during June and July, 2008.