Zogby International polled a group of businessmen, academics, communicators and political leaders from eight Latin American countries. The survey found that Chilean President Ricardo Lagos was the most popular (32.1% approval) and least unpopular (15.9% disapproval) leader in the western hemisphere. President Bush had favorable rating of 25.2%, which ranked second; but the US leader had a whopping 73.2% unfavorable rating, far and away the highest in the region.
Lest you think Latin American elites remain infatuated with self-styled revolutionaries, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was admired by only 5% of respondents and Cuba's Fidel Castro by less than 3%.
Pollster Zogby lauded the moderate socialist President Lagos: “We’re seeing a new pragmatism, with less emphasis in ideology, based on a new model to imitate in the continent which is Chile."
Quite the antithesis of what we're seeing at the White House.
1 comment:
Really interesting finding! I think that what's really missing in today's political climate is plain ol' pragmatism. The preznit is letting ideology trump good policy.
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