Poll: Egyptians Warm to America

Having nightmares of a rabidly anti-American government turning Egypt into the next Iran? Things could actually work out more agreeably, if recent polling of how Egyptians feel about the United States is any guide, Nate Silver writes in FiveThirtyEight blog of The New York Times.

“Egyptian popular opinion toward the United States has substantially improved over the course of the past 2 to 3 years, to the point that a new leader would probably not gain any points by expressing anti-American sentiment,” Silver writes.

His source is an annual survey of countries’ attitudes towards one another conducted by the BBC World Service. Egypt joined the survey in 2007, when just 11 percent of Egyptians polled viewed the United States as having a “mostly positive” influence in the world.

The election of President Obama, and his well-received June 2009 speech in Cairo, seem to have spurred major improvements in the Egyptian national mood toward America. Last year’s survey found 45 percent of Egyptians, a plurality, viewed the U.S. positively.