I thought the Muslim world was going to love us after Bush was replaced by Mr. Wonderful?

(Boston Globe) — The United States is viewed less favorably in much of the Arab world today than it was during the final year of the Bush administration, and President Obama is less popular in the region that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to a poll released today (WED) by the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group.

Attitudes towards the US president and the United States as a whole have been growing increasingly negative over the past ten years due to the invasion of Iraq, outrage over Guantanamo Bay, and continued frustration over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which has been tracking attitudes for a decade.

But the current poll is striking in that is illustrates how far Obama’s favorability has fallen in the region, after an initial optimistic spike when he took office.

In 2008, the final year of the Bush administration, only nine percent of Egyptians had a favorable attitude towards the United States. A year later, after Obama took office, that number jumped to 30 percent. But now it has plummeted to just five percent of Egyptians who view the United States favorably.

In Egypt and Jordan, only three percent of people polled said they agreed with Obama’s policies in the region, compared to 31 percent and 20 percent who said they agreed with the Iranian president’s. In Saudi Arabia, only ten percent agreed with Obama’s policies, compared to four percent who said they agreed with the Iranian president.