Asking a simple question the hard way

Gallup just released a new poll on American perceptions of the global image of the US. The question that intrigued me the most was on perceptions of the US president:

At first I thought this was an interesting question. After looking at the data, I realized it was not. Rather, this is little more than a complicated way of asking “do you approve of the job performance of the president?” Think about it: how many respondents are going to say foreign leaders have a different perception of the president’s performance than the respondent does? Sure, if you ask about certain leaders – say Gordon Brown versus Kim Jung Il – you will probably get different responses, but when you lump all foreign leaders together, the only logical response is to think that others see the president as you do. That’s how I would respond. Thus, what on the surface appears to be an interesting question is really little more than asking a simple question the hard way.