9-10-09, 11:43 am

All the countries in a 22-nation BBC survey prefer Barack Obama to John McCain in the upcoming November elections, according to recent analysis by WorldPublicOpinion.org. On average, almost half of those surveyed in the 22 countries prefer Obama over McCain, who garnered only 12 percent of the world's support.

The most common view in 19 of the 22 countries is that if John McCain is elected global relations with the US would remain unchanged or worsen. Only 20 percent of those surveyed globally felt relations would improve under McCain. While he never received more support than Barack Obama in any country in the survey, McCain's largest support came from Russia and Lebanon.

Barack Obama saw his largest support come from Canada, France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Australia, Kenya, and Nigeria. On average almost half of the people in all of the countries said their perception of the US would improve if Obama is elected, while only about one in four said their views would remain unchanged.

A survey conducted in the US parallel to this global survey found that 63 percent of Americans think relations with the rest of the world would worsen or remain unchanged (already viewed negatively) under a McCain presidency. Only 29 percent felt that relations would worsen or stay the same under an Obama administration.

In a similar survey in 2004, several countries, including the Philippines, Nigeria, and Poland, favored George W. Bush's reelection. In this election cycle, however, those countries favor Obama over McCain, according to the WorldPublicOpinion.org analysis.

The three predominantly Muslim countries included in the survey – Egypt, Lebanon, and Turkey – showed the least optimism among the 22 countries that an Obama presidency would improve global relations.