Poll: Obama Not Helping U.S. Image In Iran

Only 29 Percent Of Iranians See U.S. Favorably Despite New President, Rare Survey Shows

(AP)  Few Iranians have favorable opinions of the United States, a view that has changed little since the election of an American president who has expressed a willingness to talk to Tehran, a rare poll of Iranian citizens showed Monday.

Even so, the survey shows Iranians continue to strongly want their country to adopt democratic institutions like free elections and a free press, the poll showed. There also remains a widespread willingness to stage unconditional negotiations with the U.S. following nearly three decades of diplomatic estrangement between the two countries.

Just 29 percent of Iranians said they have favorable views of the United States in the latest poll, which was conducted last month. In a similar survey in February 2008 - nearly a year before Barack Obama became president - 34 percent had positive opinions about the U.S.

In a further sign of wariness toward the United States, 38 percent in last month's poll said the U.S. is the greatest threat to Iran. Only Israel was ranked higher - 44 percent of Iranians said the Jewish state posed the greatest threat to their country.

Accurate public opinion polls are a rarity in Iran, whose Islamic rulers enforce strict rules of behavior and where dissidents are often imprisoned. The survey was conducted by telephone from a nearby country that the sponsors declined to identify for security reasons.

The poll was conducted for Terror Free Tomorrow, a bipartisan group that tries to undermine support for terrorism, and for the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute. Both are based in Washington.

The latest survey was released days before Friday's national elections in Iran, in which hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being pressed by his main challenger, reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Iran's media is largely controlled by the government, though the Iranian people increasingly have access to the Internet. That makes it hard to gauge how much information Iranians have received about Obama and his repeated statements that he is open to talks in hopes of improving relations.

"How much of Obama's message has been broadcast to them, I have no idea," said Ken Ballen, president of Terror Free Tomorrow.

The new poll shows 87 percent of Iranians favor making free elections a long-term goal for Iran, up a slight 5 percentage points from a year ago. Another 84 percent want a free press to be a long-term goal, up 6 percentage points.

Those figures were not much lower than the 90 percent who said improving the economy should be a long-term goal for Iran, where economic conditions have been poor in recent years.

Sixty percent said they favor unconditional talks with the U.S., virtually unchanged from last year.

Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic relations since 1979, when radicals seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held American hostages for 444 days. They are currently at odds over Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. says is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, a charge Iran has contested.

The survey was conducted by KA Europe SPRL, a privately owned research company.

Telephone interviews, conducted in Farsi, involved a random sample of 1,001 adult Iranians from May 11-20. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The company says more than 90 percent of Iranians have landline telephones.

[tautomer]

by abt1 June 8, 2009 10:47 AM PDT Hey, CBS News: I've got an idea - how about doing a story on a poll taken AFTER Obama's Cairo speech?
____________________________________________________________________

Oh, you mean after Obama told the world that the US is the world's biggest "Muslim Nation"? LMAO Do you really think they believed that?

[YrSoWrong]

Our government alternates a demigod with a lazy moron. Still better than life in Iran.

[armyoftwelve]

Did anyone really think that Mr Obama would magically transform the iranian perception of the United States??

[nolies74621]

I'm shocked! they don't love us over there more now that we have such a warm, intelligent, friendly negotiator for a president instead of that dumb shoot-first ask-later cowboy we used to have. And what's up with N. Korea taking hostages and going all nuclear on us.

Don't they realize we are all supposed to come together and hold hands and sing songs now that the brilliant Obama is reaching out and apologizing.

They obviously don't get MSNBC over there.


Why would they want MSNBC? Shouldnt they rename MSOBAMAC? MSNBC the worst news cast that I have ever watched. They don't even know what word unbiased means.

[erb0087]

I doubt you'd find one in every three Americans with a favorable view of Iran.

[erb0087]

Newsweek's Evan Thomas: Obama Is "Sort of God"

An improvement over the previous president, who was sort of a lazy moron.

[erb0087]

"I'm surprised the poll shows any support for America whatsoever."
Posted by nofoolling at 9:49 PM : Jun 8, 2009

=========================

Me too. "Just 29 percent of Iranians said they have favorable views of the United States in the latest poll..."

"Just" 29 precent ? That's almost one in three Iranians.

That's rather astonishing.

[nofoolling]

We've been wreaking havoc and destruction in that area of the world to try to gain the edge, control of, or simple access to various oilfields and natural gas fields for the last 50+ years using methods from outright assassination, to funding rebel, counter. or terrorist groups, or simply helping dictatorships defeat the opposition.

You think these folks have simply forgotten all of our past sins, especially now that we're blowing folks to smithereens, mangling their children, and basically destroying their futures with invented wars wrought upon them by the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate?

You think anything any President says for the next 50 years or so will fool these folks into submission or cooperation?

Blaming any of this on Obama is simply foolish and ignorant.

I'm surprised the poll shows any support for America whatsoever.

[Audacity_of_Deception]

Newsweek's Evan Thomas: Obama Is "Sort of God"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsweek editor Evan Thomas brought adulation over President Obama's Cairo speech to a whole new level on Friday, declaring on MSNBC: "I mean in a way Obama's standing above the country, above, above the world, he's sort of God."

Link: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2009/06/05/newsweek-s-evan-thomas-obama-sort-god

[randomlybanned]

He's not helping my image of him either on the World Apology Tours he keeps taking.

[HGOODGUY]

WANT A GREAT SUGGESTION??

STOP TAKING POLLS ON EVERY THING!!!

ALL THE NEWS TODAY SEEMS TO BE "PANELS AND POLLS"

IT'S LIKE LOOKING FOR FLYSHIT IN THE PEPPER!!!

[ubrew12]

LawyersGuns-n-Money_ said: " Afghanistan; the most lawless of ALL the aforementioned countries. Again, not a very viable concept."

Could the U.S. control Iran? Pakistan? what other choice is there? Its very lawlessness is our advantage. No power structure. No people. By this scenario Bush does the heavy lifting and Obama finishes the task. I'm not saying its right. I'm just saying it happened.

[LawyersGuns-n-Money_]

Which makes your theory even less credible since the pipeline which you speak of would ultimately run through Pakistan. Not to mention the end point of this supposed pipeline is supposed to end up in India. You think Pakistan would ever go along with that?

Not to mention Pakistan and Turkmenistan almost ground our efforts to a halt two years ago by cutting off both fuel GLOCS simultaneously. I'd say we're pretty much at their mercy over there.
Posted by LawyersGuns-n-Money_ at 8:09 PM : Jun 8, 2009

And you see no connection with that and our interest in Afghanistan?
Posted by ubrew12 at 8:13 PM : Jun 8, 2009

Oh, I forgot to mention Afghanistan; the most lawless of ALL the aforementioned countries. Again, not a very viable concept.

[erb0087]

"Poll: Obama Not Helping U.S. Image In Iran"

===========================

Geeze, he's only been in office a short time.

It will take more than a few months to improve a relationship that has been bad for decades: ever since Eisenhower's CIA overthrew a democratically elected Iranian government by means of terrorist methods, and forced the tyrannical Shah down their throats.

[IrishWench01]

Hey, IrishWench01, check out Paul Brady:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6XPuwIz298
Posted by ubrew12 at 8:12 PM ......

I just listened. :-) Thanks

[ubrew12]

mh4cbs1 said: "Hey Iranians!.... get over it already."

VERY well put. But, they should, actually, for their own future.

[ubrew12]

LawyersGuns-n-Money_ said: "Pakistan and Turkmenistan almost ground our efforts to a halt two years ago by cutting off both fuel GLOCS simultaneously. "

And you see no connection with that and our interest in Afghanistan?

[ubrew12]

IrishWench01 said: "I frankly can't remember the last time I had a favorable opinion of Iran. Do you think they are worried that I find their image lacking?"

'Taste of Cherries' by Kiarostami. But I agree with you.

Hey, IrishWench01, check out Paul Brady:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6XPuwIz298

[mh4cbs1]

Hey Iranians!

When will you get over the fact that we overthrew your Democracy in 1953 and installed the Shah of Iran? When will you forget about our decades of unilateral support of Israel while Palestinians get slaughtered in Gaza? When will you forget that we pumped up Saddam Hussein and armed him with Billions and with WMDs so he could wage War on you and 'balance the powers'.

So get over it already.

[LawyersGuns-n-Money_]

In the Iranian culture, they don't listen to wimps!
That's what you get when you have a community organizer playing president.
Posted by ReallyMeanIt at 8:07 PM : Jun 8, 2009

Ah yes, I distinctly remember North and Secord giving birth to little Tehran.