From the AFP via The Australian :

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry today proclaimed that the world wants President George W. Bush out of the White House and the return of the US “they know and love”.

In a new swipe at Republican Bush’s muscular foreign policy, Mr Kerry renewed his pledge to return the US to the internationalism that marked its foreign policy for the second half of the 20th century.

“The world is waiting for the United States of America they know and love,” Mr Kerry told a late-night rally of at least 5000 supporters in the mid-western state of Wisconsin.

Mr Kerry saw Mr Bush pounce on his remark in the second presidential debate that US action abroad should satisfy a “global test” of legitimacy, and proclaim a “Kerry doctrine” of foreign states wielding control over US action abroad.

So today, he repeated the line he now inserts into every campaign appearance: “I will never cede the security of this country to any other nation or institution.”

“But you know the United States of America is most effective … when we have friends and allies by our side and we move with other nations.”

As an Australian, I agree. That’s why we’re already with the USA, as allies and friends, along with dozens of other nations. Sorry to interrupt, I’ll continue without injecting opinions.

Mr Kerry told the crowd, braving chilly temperatures and sleet, that their judgement on election day, November 2, would be watched around the globe.

”The world is waiting for what you are going to do. You don’t just get to chose the president of the United States, you get to decide the leader of the free world.”

Mr Kerry has accused Mr Bush of ruining long-term US alliances with his policy of pre-emptive strikes against potential threats to the US, and with his invasion of Iraq.

Global opinion polls show that Mr Bush’s policies have stirred global resentment and that much of the world would prefer Mr Kerry as the next US president.

A collaborative polling exercise involving 10 newspapers around the world, including The Sydney Morning Herald, showed hostility directed not only at the Bush administration but also at the image of the US.

The project, initiated by Canada’s Quebec-based La Presse newspaper, included France’s Le Monde, The Guardian of Britain, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, Russia’s Moscow News, Mexico’s Reforma, Israel’s Haaretz and Spain’s El Pais.

They found that voters in eight out of the 10 countries - excluding Israel and Russia - want to see Kerry, the Democratic challenger, beat Mr Bush in the election.

Their findings, the product of identical polls taken in September, also suggested the Bush administration was facing isolation and hostility rarely seen among its closest allies.

An Isolation and Hostility not seen since…Ronald Reagan.