The Shoebox’s are huge Disney fans. Old or new, we love all Disney movies. DisneyWorld? We’ve been there at least once a year since the Things were about 5 and some years we clocked as many as 4 trips.
We’ve been to DisneyWorld enough times that the heat and long lines, if there are any, don’t bother us. We have our favorite attractions and know how to use Fastpass, extra magic hours and the other Disney mechanisms to manage lines, to our fullest advantage. One attraction that hardly ever has a line is It’s a Small World.
For those of you who have been on this ride, bear with me while I bring the others up to speed. It’s a Small World is a boat ride through various scenes of puppets dressed as children from countries around the world. The attraction, originally built for the 1964 World’s Fair, may have been entertaining at the time but today, is nothing short of boring. Along with the dated animation of the kitchy puppets, is the song that plays over and over and over again, just with different languages. By the end of the ride, most people are considering diving out of the boat and swimming to the end of the ride.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 particularly despise It’s a Small World. For this reason, Mrs. Shoe and I make sure that we ride it on each trip. we usually set it up so that we “have” to do It’s a Small World before the Things get to do something they are really yearning to do.
But, I digress. This post has nothing to do with Disney.
In the same week that President Obama’s favorability rating as an average across all major polls, drops below 50% in the US, it is announced that Arabs have an even lower opinion of the President than his US constituents.
According to a recently released Brookings public opinion poll, 63% of Arabs labeled their attitude as “discouraged” by the Obama administration. In contrast, only 16% were “hopeful”. While those numbers alone are remarkeable given that the meme of the Obama phenomena was that the world would love the US if only Obama were kingPresident, what’s more amazing is how quickly the perception of Obama has changed. Just last year, the poll was nearly the exact opposite with 51% of Arabs saying they were optomistic and only 15% discouraged.
It’s hard to believe that only two short years ago the Left was decrying President Bush over his poor popularity amongst Arabs. At the time, only 15% of Arabs had a favorable view of the United States. Today, only 12% of Arabs have a favorable view of the United States and there isn’t a peep of concern about Barack Obama is impacting the position of the US in the world.
Most people would agree that the issues of the Middle East are very distant from those challenging the US. That said, when it comes to optimism in the Obama administration, it is a Small World After All!
