Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The first major dustup between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- whether the next president should unconditionally meet with leaders hostile to the U.S. -- is still simmering after two weeks.

How the issue will play in the American presidential election remains uncertain. How the rest of the world is reacting is not. Obama wins.

It isn't so much the particulars of this rather contrived controversy: The lawmaker from Illinois, responding to a question at a televised debate, said that as president he would meet, without preconditions, with the bad guys -- the Iranians, Syrians, North Koreans, Cubans or Venezuelans.

Clinton disagreed and, flexing her experience muscles, said afterward that Obama's response was ``irresponsible and frankly naive.''

Those words sound as if they could have come from President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney -- an unpopular view in much of the world.

Any doubters about world opinion should look at this year's Pew Research Center global attitudes survey of 45,000 people in 47 nations. Anti-Americanism has worsened in the past five years; there is an especially pervasive disapproval of American foreign policy and widespread opposition to Bush.

``The biggest complaint is that we conduct foreign policy unilaterally,'' says Andy Kohut, who directs the survey. ``Iraq is the poster child for those views.''

`Against the World'

Anti-Americanism isn't new. In a 2006 book he co-wrote -- ``America Against the World'' -- Kohut notes that in 1842 Charles Dickens found Americans ``rude, addicted to sharp business practices, hypocritical about liberty in light of their treatment of blacks, and careless about where they spit tobacco.'' In 1958, a celebrated book was entitled ``The Ugly American.''

When the Soviet Union collapsed, American hegemony as the world's only superpower generated resentment around the world.

There are bright spots in the Pew survey. People in India, Japan, South Korea and throughout Africa have a favorable sense of the U.S.

Yet overall, negative sentiments have deepened significantly in the Bush years. By huge majorities, predominantly Muslim countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia, have a negative view of the U.S. So do most people in Latin America and Western Europe.

The neo-conservatives who drove the Bush foreign policy were contemptuous of what they regarded as former President Bill Clinton's obsession with being popular in other countries. They also admirably pushed a pro-democracy agenda.

Colliding Views

The two views collided as the axis of Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, failed to appreciate that public opinion can't be easily manipulated and democratically elected leaders can't ignore the consent of the governed.

The best illustration is Turkey. This used to be the neo- cons' favorite Muslim country, tough-minded and realistic. Thus, top American officials assumed Turkey would be a U.S. ally in overthrowing Saddam Hussein. They were stunned in 2003 when the Turks wouldn't let Americans use their country as a staging platform for the Iraq invasion.

They shouldn't have been. Kohut says the overwhelming majority of Turks opposed the American military action. Today, Turks have an unfavorable view of the U.S. by a margin of 83 percent to 9 percent. Seven years ago, a majority in that country had a favorable opinion.

Beyond Security

The anti-American sentiments extend beyond security and military issues. There are widespread complaints about the U.S. posture on the environment, a growing concern to people in most countries.

This is part of the generic complaint that American leaders simply don't care what others think. It's not limited to Islamic countries or Europeans; 83 percent of Canadians say America ignores their interests, and majorities among U.S. allies such as Japan and South Korea say the same.

As a result, the Bush administration's promotion of democracy and democratic values -- something the president genuinely believes in -- is viewed suspiciously; majorities in most countries say they dislike American notions about democracy.

Undoubtedly, the Iraq misadventure and problems such as the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo are a driving force behind much of the anti-Americanism. Support around the world for the U.S. ``war on terrorism'' has plummeted, and majorities in 43 of 47 countries say the U.S. should pull out of Iraq ``as soon as possible.''

`Rock Star Appeal'

Some foreign policy experts, such as Dick Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton administration, say global hostility is directed more at Bush's policies than at Americans and can be rectified by the next president. Holbrooke argues that the two leading Democratic presidential contenders, Hillary Clinton -- who he's advising -- and Obama have ``rock star appeal'' around the globe.

``The rest of the world is looking to the U.S. for leadership,'' Holbrooke says. ``There is a chance to fix these problems if the next president disengages from the inherited contamination: Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and the `my way or the highway' style.''

Yet ``my way or the highway'' is what Clinton conveyed in her initial response to Obama. Her campaign piled on because that's what the take-no-prisoners mindset requires. The senator from New York's response, however, wasn't scripted and was a rare mistake by a tired candidate.

Moreover, on the substance, her attitude seems small.

All About Chavez?

Almost every political figure outside the Bush administration -- and certainly including Hillary Clinton -- says we should be talking to the Iranians and Syrians about the Iraq quagmire. North Korea, as Clinton has noted, developed nuclear weapons on Bush's watch, so as erratic as Kim Jong-il may be, it's hard to argue that talking to him is irresponsible. Fidel Castro is in his last throes. So the whole debate is over meeting with nutty Hugo Chavez?

Initially, this fight was incorrectly seen as ideological, says David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist. A week later, Obama suggested he'd be prepared to bomb al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan.

``The distinctions here are between conventional thinking and breaking away,'' Axelrod says.

That's why the sometimes confrontation-averse Obama relishes this encounter.

To contact the writer of this column: Albert R. Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 5, 2007 10:37 EDT