Bush Should Move to Nigeria

Now, I've been saying this for a while, but according to a new report I finally have some empirical evidence that he should move to Nigeria, or Azerbaijan, or even India. 

Let me explain, According to WorldPublicOpinion.org, Bush is more liked in these places than the United States. WorldPublicOpinion.org (hereafter referred to as WPO because I don't want to use copy/paste or retype that) just released a report of "Leaders with a Global Profile". Fancy right? Basically what they are doing is working to find out which leaders work, and which leaders should just step down. And the results are not that good for President Bush. 

Now, let's make two things clear. I do not like President Bush that much, but I do hold respect for the office that he holds (though for not much longer). Second, I hate "Bush-bashing" I find it in bad taste. Now, I will admit I am for the occasional joke or two but for the most part I try to stray away from such a tactless approach. (But, I have said numerous times that Bush should move to Nigeria, what can I say?) 

Moving on. According to this report, the global community has more confidence in President Mahmoud  Ahmadinejad of Iran. Now, in case you have been living under a rock for the past three years, this is the man who called the Holocaust a myth and said " [w]e don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that in our country....I don't know who's told you we have it." Needless to say, I don't quite enjoy him as most of the world was assumed to agree. And yet he scored 1 country that has confidence in him more  and 1 country less that holds "no/not so much confidence" point compared to President Bush who only bested President Musharraf of Pakistan. Yes, you read that right, our President apparently has less confidence placed in him than a Holocaust denying homophobe, but beats out the President who turned Pakistan into a worse place than it has been in almost a decade. YAY Bush! 

The interesting thing to me is that most of Bush's approval came from Nigeria, Azerbaijan, India, China, Thailand, South Korea, and Spain. The places that have the least confidence in his leadership include: Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Argentina, and Mexico. 

The good news is that all is not lost as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon holds favorable appeal in 9 countries polled which was the only "world leader" to have more nations favoring him than those that do not favor him (9 vs 8). 

All in all, this signals to me that our leaders need to step it up. The world leaders on a whole need to show the world that they are capable of tackling the issues that face us on a larger scale, including but not limited to: inflation, hunger, poverty, trade, education, and women's rights. Once our leaders show that they are able to conquer these issues in any minuscule amount (or at least acknowledge their need to be dealt with) I know I will not placing too much confidence in them. 

And as a means of explaining Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's "high ratings" I would look to the fact that he has been working heavily on the UN's food prices agenda, working on water scarcity and climate change, and the fact that he seems to truly care. So, world leaders, are you going to take a stand and follow in Mr. Ki-moon's footsteps? 

P.S. Thank you WPO for doing this report, hopefully some "higher-ups" will take note.