The World Is Not 100% Behind Obama-- But Damn Close

A friend of mine is running for Congress and his campaign has been doing weekly tracking polls. He told me that he has the support of 100% of African American voters in the district-- 100%. I never saw anyone get 100% in any election anywhere, not even in the fake elections they used to have in the Soviet Union or in Third World military dictatorships. So I've been really impressed with this never-changing tracking poll stat.

But a day or two ago I was listening to NPR and they mentioned that the Economist.com has an interact map that shows the polling data internationally on McCain and Obama. The map is fun and you should click the link and check it out. Most of it isn't surprising: basically the whole world, including the U.S. and every single country in North America and Europe is strongly in favor of Obama (except rump countrilettes Macedonia, which leans McCain, and Moldova and Slovakia which lean Obama in Europe and Cuba, also leaning McCain). As for their ancestral homes, McCain's Britain favors Obama (89-11%) and Obama's Kenya favors Obama (97-3%). Obama lived in Indonesia for a few years when he was a child and the folks there favor him 96-4%. McCain was born and raised in Panama and the people there favor Obama 79-21%). I was actually surprised to see that Israel strongly favors Obama (70-30%) and that Iraq is the only country in the world strongly favoring McCain (75-25%). Afghanistan goes 89-11% for Obama.

What I was looking for though was to see if there were any countries that replicated the 100% that my friend the soon-to-be-congressman was finding. And there are two! Haiti and Cameroon are 100% for Obama! The other stat I was looking for was Vietnam. After all, a huge part of the McCain myth was manufactured in and about Vietnam and they have his old flight uniform on display and he's handed out senatorial cuff links to his former captors and guards and to a woman who once claimed she once popped him with a hoe. She may be supporting his attempt to become president but most people in Nam, just like most people in every single Asian country except Iraq and Georgia (which leans McCain), is strongly for Obama, 85-15%. Today's Times, the one in London where they care about this far away little countries, carries a feature centered around Tran Trong Duyet, a pro-McCain guy who used to run the Hanoi Hilton (McCain's prison). The story confirms what most people who refused to take McCain's word for what actually happened there have long figured: he made the whole torture thing up as part of the myth building. McCain's lies, just accepted at face value, but never anything more than an excuse for signing a confession about war crimes:

“I was hauled into an empty room and kept there for four days. At intervals, the guards returned to administer beatings. One held me while the others pounded away. They cracked several of my ribs and broke a couple of teeth. Weakened by beatings and dysentery, with my right leg again almost useless, I found it impossible to stand.

“On the third night I lay in my blood and waste, so tired and hurt that I could not move. Three guards lifted me to my feet and gave me the worst beating yet. They left me on the floor moaning from the pain in my arm. Despairing of any relief from pain and further torture, I tried to take my life.”

After the election I'm flying to Dakar in Senegal and then going hiking in the Dogone country of Mali. Mali has no dog in this fight one way or the other and the Dogones have no electricity and no way of knowing who either McCain or Obama is but prosperous and Democratic little Senegal-- unlike savage hellholes like McCain-leaning Sudan and the Congo-- is strong for Obama (77-23%).