Truesee's Daily Wonder

There is one glaring exception: Mexico, where 62 percent expressed favorable views of the United States just days before an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigrants was signed in April, but only 44 percent did so afterward.

The findings by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, conducted in April and May in the United States and 21 other countries by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, come amid a global economic downturn and US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The poll has been polling people around the world since 2002.

Among the seven countries surveyed with substantial Muslim populations, the United States was seen favorably by 17 percent in Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan and 21 percent in Jordan. The United States’ positive rating was 52 percent in Lebanon, 59 percent in Indonesia, and 81 percent in Nigeria, where Muslims comprise about half the population.

Few of those figures were improvements from last year. Approval dipped slightly in Jordan and in Indonesia, where Obama spent several years growing up. Egypt saw a 10-point drop, even though Obama gave a widely promoted June 2009 speech in Cairo aimed at reaching out to the Muslim world.

In all seven of those countries, the percentage of Muslims expressing confidence in Obama has also dropped since last year. Only in Nigeria and Indonesia do majorities of Muslims voice confidence in him; just 8 percent in Pakistan do.

“You get a sense of Muslim disappointment with Barack Obama,’’ said Andy Kohut, the Pew president, who attributed it to discontent with US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to expectations raised by Obama’s Cairo speech.

The surveys were taken before Israel’s deadly May 31 clash with a flotilla trying to break the blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza, which sparked widespread condemnation of Israel.

In the rest of the world, the United States and Obama generally fare better.

The 6 in 10 in Germany and Spain who view the United States favorably has doubled from the lows reached under Bush. The US image is also significantly better than it was under Bush in Russia, China, France, Argentina, South Korea, and Japan. Obama is broadly supported, but the percentages expressing confidence in him have ebbed in 14 countries polled.

In only five countries do majorities think the United States considers other nations when setting its foreign policy. Support for US antiterrorism efforts and Obama’s handling of economic problems is generally strong, but there is significant opposition to American involvement in Afghanistan and little faith that a stable government will emerge in Iraq.