Has America become the “most respected country on earth” under President Obama?

Noun (plural kernels of truth) (idiomatic) A core accuracy at the heart of a claim or narrative which also contains dubious or fictitious elements.

I once read the book “Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism” by former  Romanian Lt. Gen. Ion Pacepa, who, in 1978, became the highest-ranking Soviet intelligence officer to ever defect to the West. In that book he described how the Soviet Union’s use of propaganda was always based on a “kernel of truth.”
I immediately wondered what was the basis of Mr. Obama’s claim that the United States is now “the most respected country on earth.“

I did the obvious and tried using the Google but had no luck. I did find from Forbes “The World’s Most Reputable Countries, 2014” that stated “what about the US and why is it lagging far behind Finland, back in 22^nd place?” and a BBC poll in June of 2013: “World’s Opinion of U.S. Lowest Since Bush Presidency.”

Fortunately PolitiFact which has access to the White House was also curious and asked them about the claim. They were referred to this Gallup Poll titled “Russia Receives Lowest Approval in World; U.S. Highest.” This article makes the statement that “For the past six years, the U.S. has typically received the highest approval ratings and Russia the lowest.” This is very interesting since it was from 2014 bringing up the question as to what “People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the United States, in world opinion, ranked below China and just barely above Russia,” is based on.

The question asked in the poll was “Do you approve  or disapprove of the job performance of the leadership of _________?” The only option were the U.S., Germany, EU, China and Russia, not quite every country on earth.

From the report:

Survey Methods

Results are based on face-to-face and telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, in each country or area. This report provides annual results of leadership approval of the U.S., Germany, the European Union, China and Russia from 2007 through 2014. Throughout 2014, residents were asked to rate U.S., German and Russian leadership in 135 countries or areas, and residents in 136 countries or areas were asked to rate the EU and China. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error ranged from ± 2.5 percentage points to ± 5.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

I hope that I’ve proven that Mr. Obama’s statement that “People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the United States, in world opinion, ranked below China and just barely above Russia, and today once again, the United States is the most respected country on earth” is based on a very dubious claim which brings me back to Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote to always “question with boldness” any statement by a public official.

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