ONE OF THE most prominent news analysts at El País (Spain's 'newspaper of record' and a virtual mouthpiece for the Socialist government) writes about the US elections:

Judging by these polls, even though the opinions are not unanimous, the Bush administration is the main element responsible for having thrown away, throughout the last three years, the huge wealth of sympathy felt by the whole world toward the United States.

We should all acknowledge by now that this alleged sympathy is nothing but bullsh*t. And particularly so when the thesis comes from the newspaper that, on september 12 2001, had all across page 1 the headline, "The World in suspense awaiting for Bush's reaction" (link in Spanish). Nice, kind, sympathetic guys, ain't they?