Haven't Hit Bottom Yet

New BBC poll of 25 countries finds that the US hasn't bottomed out yet in world opinion. Only 29% of those polled believe the United States was having a generally positive influence in the world. That's down from 35 percent in the poll last year and 40 percent the year before. It's not an exaggeration to say that the US is approaching worldwide pariah status.

Pollster Steven Kull observed: "The thing that comes up repeatedly is not just anger about Iraq. . . . The common theme is hypocrisy. The reaction tends to be, 'You were a champion of a certain set of rules. Now you are breaking your own rules, so you are being hypocritical."

Sadly, all the particulars that fill out the world's hypocrisy indictment--Guantanamo, Iraq, secret prisons, Middle-East policy generally--are issues on which the Democratic party contiues to abdicate leadership. I doubt that a Democratic president will even have the courage to close the national disgrace at Guantanamo Bay.