Best world leader

[PBI]

I found this poll rather interesting. It asked people around the world to rate a number of world leaders on how much they trust them to "do the right thing" on world affairs.

Not surprisingly, Bush is hugely unpopular, but more troubling is the fact that the autocratic Putin and Hu Jintao do relatively well. The biggest surprise of all is the fact that our very own Gordon Brown topped the poll (though not by much) as the most trusted world leader (apart from Ban Ki-Moon, but I guess he benefits a lot by being head of an organisation with no real power), a very surprising result given how unpopular he is here.

What do people make of this? Is it just some random piece of spam I've managed to trawl up from the internet? Just for fun I've reproduced the poll here, with of course the essential "Gah!" option included (silly pollsters must have forgotten to ask that; though I suppose a vote for Ban Ki-Moon is essentially a vote for Gah!), to see if any of us are not sufficiently jaded yet as to still have any confidence in any of the candidates.

[CountArach]

Hugo Chavez.

*Awaits the flames*

[HoreTore]

Gah! None of the above.

Bush and Brown are retards, Sarkozy is a hyperactive idiot, Putin, Jintao, Ahmadinejad and Musharraf are all tyrants of varying degrees and I don't know Ban Ki-Moon very much.

[PBI]

I suspect that there are going to be a lot of votes for Gah!, after all in the poll itself none of the eight candidates exactly did well. Plus as CA points out there are some notable omissions; Angela Merkel and Silvio Berlusconi jump to mind.

I only posted the poll for fun, I was really more interested in what people think of the results of the actual poll.

[FactionHeir]

I fail so see how any of the above are "world leaders" except for Moon and maybe Bush. The rest just lead their own countries.

[Don Corleone]

I read the title of the thread, not the poll question. And the criteria I used is "Who is doing the best job representing the current and future interests of their citizens". Unquestionably, in my mind, Hu Jintao wins that one, hands down. China is undergoing miraculous growth and development that have made the life of the average Chinese incomparably better. And Hu is making all the right plays. He's quietly walking in and taking advantage of all of Bush's missteps. He's gotten himself even cheaper labor than China over in Africa. He has gotten all sorts of oil contracts to secure that precious resource to make sure it ships to Shanghai, not LA. And he has Bush looking like a pantywaist over Taiwan. All in all, he's executing on the country's goals better than anybody else on that list is, relatively speaking.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Out of those? Putin.

[LittleGrizzly]

I voted Gah! clearly more intelligent than the other leaders and has yet to make a policy i do not like...

or Hugo Chavez :p

[Moros]

Voted Gordon Brown as he's the least threat for mankind of all those in the list.
Next would be Sarkozy I guess. It gets ugly after that.

I didn't vote for Ban, as he clearly isn't a world leader, he's more of a symbol. And symbols don't rule, they get abused.

[ICantSpellDawg]

Hu is doing the best job. Tee hee hee

Again, you can have confidence in someone for good or bad. Tribesman has confidence that Bush will bungle things up when given simple tasks. Bush is one of the more reliable on the list in that his answers will do nothing in the short term to resolve problems or put peoples fears at ease. He has shown himself to be an inept communicator.

I trust that Hu Jintao commands his country and is directing the communist party to a brighter future (at the expense of everyone else on the planet). If I was one of the people that he served I would have the utmost confidence in him. He is a despot over his people, but if you believe in the intangible "China" over personal freedom for the everyman, he is a very competant leader. I

I don't, so he is the enemy.

Putin also tops the list. These two men are dangerous and not to be trusted in a positive way, but instead elicit a feeling that they know what they want and how to get it. I would vote a Brown, Bush, Clinton (bill), Obama, Carter, etc over those 2 men

Sarkozy has been doing a fine job since he put the drama behind him and so has Merkel, but the rest of the leaders of the west need to be dragged outside and blasted; The left for being terrible and the right for being lost morons.

Brown is a powerfully overated idiot and Bush has failed to unify or lead his people beyond his first 2 years in office. Parliament and Congress are full of visionless windbags with deep pockets and self destructive tendencies.

Democracy is being brought to the ICU.

[Martok]

Voted Gordon Brown as he's the least threat for mankind of all those in the list.

Heh. Sadly, that's a valid point, Moros.


That being said, however, I still had to vote "Gah!". Brown comes across as almost a big an idiot as Bush, which of course is no small feat. And I simply cannot bring myself to vote for a moron, no matter how benign s/he may be.

[PBI]

Hu is doing the best job. Tee hee hee

Interesting perspective, I suppose you could argue that he is the only one on the list who has actually made his country better (or at least richer) rather than worse, whereas the others have all had better starting points and made things worse.

Brown is a powerfully overated idiot

Overrated by whom? I was under the impression that he is more or less universally regarded as a moron. Though I guess you could argue even that is to give him too much credit.

Democracy is being brought to the ICU.

Apologies for my ignorance, what is the "ICU"? Is it a Backroom-repeatable term?

[Louis VI the Fat]

What do people make of this? Is it just some random piece of spam I've managed to trawl up from the internet?

Certainly no spam. I think it quite interesting. Shocking to see how much faith people have in autocrats.

Of this list, only Brown, Sarkozy and Bush are democrats. I myself could have some trust in autocratic leaders to 'do the right thing in world affairs' only if they are striving towards democratisation of their countries. Other than that, nope. The 'right thing in world affairs' is not served by being an efficient dictatorship. I believe that democracy in the long run is the road to stability and peace.

My verdict, for **** * sake, :
Bush has been a disaster. My verdict on Blair was mixed, but Brown is simply weak, insecure. Ban has not been impressive. So I voted for Sarko, whom I still support. The others: meh.

other leaders I like:
Zapatero - Europe's best.
Merkel - not so great domestically, but an international heavyweight.
Tusk - a relief.

Not like:
Berlusconi
Leterme. Incompetent.
Cowen. Loser.


*For **** sake = for fun's sake.

[ICantSpellDawg]

Apologies for my ignorance, what is the "ICU"? Is it a Backroom-repeatable term?

Intensive care unit. Sorry. I just meant that it isn't on its deathbed, but it could be if people don't get their houses in order.

Also - I meant "hu" as in "who". The question answered itself. Teeheehee

[cegorach]

Autocrats are popular because they always seem charismatic regardless what they do and when they achive results it looks well - full power, full responsibility in the eyes of the world.

Democratic leaders have to deal with far more things - political animosities, human rights, strikes, democratic tradition - rarely seem in controll and are always criticised.



I voted for Gah !


I couldn't choose most of the proposed leaders e.g. Putin - I think he will do more harm than good in the long run.

I might chose Sarkozy, but for now it is just too early and some results are necessary.

I liked and respected Blair (though he staid for too long in office), but Brown - really nothing, almost as if he wasn't there at all. Bush became a living disaster.

From European leaders only some can be called world leaders and from those for now only Merkel and Sarkozy can be seen as people with some vision - results will come, for good or ill, but we have to wait.

There is a number of local leaders for sure, but without so much influence - Zapatero ( I really don't like this man - he is a fraud to me, I cannot simply trust this man at all), Berlusconi (a nightmare, an EU jester), Yuschenko (intersting, but in never ending conflict with Yulia Timoshenko - she might be an interesting leader in the future, though) and Tusk (too early to tell much, but promising and I cannot really complain).

From other continents I am thinking that Brasil will become one of the new leaders, much thanks to their current president.


For now Gah ! IN next five years, who knows - I think it might be a hard decision because a number of new democratic leaders show much promise.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I there ever was a world leader called 'Gah', how could you not vote for him?

It would be even better if he had the exclamation mark at the end of his name...

[HoreTore]

Aaaaanyway... Has anyone else noticed that Putin isn't a president anymore?

[PBI]

I there ever was a world leader called 'Gah', how could you not vote for him?

It would be even better if he had the exclamation mark at the end of his name...

That would be good, kind of like a human version of Westward Ho!, the only place name in the world with an exclamation mark.

I guess the strong showing for Gah! thus far is not that surprising, pretty much reproducing the real poll in fact, as well as the strong showing for Putin thus far.

[Don Corleone]

Aaaaanyway... Has anyone else noticed that Putin isn't a president anymore?

....which is why I voted for Hu Jintao and not Vladmir Putin, who is no longer, technically speaking, a world leader.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Aaaaanyway... Has anyone else noticed that Putin isn't a president anymore?

He's still head of government, if not head of state.

[cegorach]

Aaaaanyway... Has anyone else noticed that Putin isn't a president anymore?

Do you really believe it ?

[HoreTore]

Do you really believe it ?

Well that's another thing

[Viking]

Six votes for Putin eh? If that nut case was in charge over the Org, half of it would be imprisoned already for practising free speech.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Six votes for Putin eh? If that nut case was in charge over the Org, half of it would be imprisoned already for practising free speech.

Fortunately, not my half.

[PBI]

Probably not imprisoned so much as "accidentally" having shot itself in the head, fallen off tall things or ingested radioactive sources.

[JAG]

Chavez.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Probably not imprisoned so much as "accidentally" having shot itself in the head...

...twice.

[King Jan III Sobieski]

I was going to vote for myself, but was disappointed when I realized my illusions of grandeur were merely dellusional dreams...

[lars573]

Castro