The poll was conducted by the Gallup organization worldwide says it all very plainly.

Others will say it more forward. Listening to local radio station reactions, to repeated speeches and pledges by Obama to end outsourcing and close down factories and call centers across Asia has hit a chord.

A tricycle driver in suburban Quezon City says. “Obama? I dont like him – he’ll put me out of work because he wants to close down the call centers.” Timeon does a brisk trade driving his motorcycle-sidecar taxi-like shuttle for call center workers at major broadcasting facility here.

Call center workers say they are puzzled, too. “How come he say no to outsourcing and then uses us to call voters to give him money? Obama? He says one thing and does another,” Letty, a 25 year old call center worker, says. The company she works for, employees have been seeing a lot of overtime from working for US election campaigns, but cannot elaborate as to what exactly they do because of non-disclosure agreements and threats of legal action if they talk about their firm’s clients. “It’s so hypocritical, why use Filipinos and Indians to make your propaganda calls then say you’re against outsourcing.” Letty also says she has told her American citizen relatives about it and asked them to vote for McCain.

In the mostly conservative Catholic majority Filipino communities surveyed, the idea of a xenophobic, isolationist, pro-abortion, anti-immigration, and perceived terrorist-friendly, liberal left of center American administration is not a popular choice.

But that is not new. Only the Philippines and Poland have positive survey figures for current US President George W. Bush

Who would you personally rather see elected president of the United States?

Note: Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Mostly the Gallup survey details are on their website and available to view. Indonesia has soft spot for Obama, who the local media has proclaimed as “Jakarta boy.” Yet in the same light there has been criticisms and a few  mis-steps taken not by the senator himself but those in Obama campaign in reaching out to Asian-Americans in general.

Many do not like Obama’s staff’s negative references to his Asian stepfather and claim they overplay poverty in Yogyakarta where he grew up, in a charmed ‘lifestyle’ in what is still a exclusive ‘empowered’ family in Indonesia.

His school, for example, was set aside for those close to government in during the dictatorship period in Indonesia. His father was an Indonesian with a lot of connections. Four of his classmates, for example, are members of either parliament or have high government posts. Not typical of the bio-pic image of him growing up in a place where crocodiles roamed the canals.

“The only crocodiles that roamed there were on the feet and arms of those who lived there in shoes and handbags” says a opinion column writer in Jakarta.

The ‘village’ they lived in as described in an American television was nearly impoverished. However, put in a Philippine setting, Obama’s neighborhood would be the equivalent of something like Makati’s San Miguel Village.

While not extremely wealthy, Obama’s stepfather was viewed as “well-off and connected”. He was popular and well-liked, and is remembered fondly by a proud family of the senator’s sister’s other siblings who, while none are critical over the election propaganda play-up of impoverished times in Indonesia, say if they could, even if dissed by the senator’s PR people, would happily vote for “Barry” (as they call Barack) if they could.

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