A Clever Country loathes Bush

I’m not bragging with the clever country lead, but the average Australian (and sadly I’m talking pretty average) can find the USA on a map. I suspect there are some coaching methods here that I’ve missed, like flash card beer coasters.

The average bloke here (gender inclusive) also knows who George W Bush is, a fact that his best buddy John Howard might be starting to regret.

According to a newly released survey we Australians feel warmly towards Americans but don’t care much for the country’s leaders or their policies.

The Lowy Institute for International Policy poll showed 69 per cent said Bush caused them to feel unfavourably towards the US, while 63 per cent said American foreign policies had the same effect.

For a start Australians are more worried about global warming than terrorism and they do not think nuclear power or clean coal technology are solutions to it.

A clear majority of 75 per cent said the need to tackle climate change should be Australia's main foreign policy goal but the same proportion stressed the need to protect jobs.

Both goals came in well ahead of the need to combat international terrorism, listed by 38 per cent. 50 per cent of Liberal/National Coalition voters shared this negative view about the impact of Howard's support for Bush on such issues.

I haven’t seen comparable US figures, but expect Americans would refect the Aussie sentiments expressed in the survey. So maybe we aren’t so clever, it’s just the issues are no brainers.