( CNN ) -- Has the new president turned around America 's image in other countries ? You could call it step one , with many more to go . Then-candidate Barack Obama gave a major speech in Berlin , Germany , in July of 2008 . In 2004 , President Bush visited Canada and faced massive protests and shouts of `` George Bush go home ! '' But on Thursday , President Obama got a different reception when he crossed the northern border : adoring throngs of Canadians shouting , `` Yes we can ! '' The new president vowed during the campaign to remake the image of the United States in the world . Last summer , for example , candidate Obama traveled to Europe and addressed thousands in Berlin , Germany . `` In Europe , the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in the world rather than a force to help make it right has become all too common , '' Obama said when he spoke not far from what was once the Berlin Wall . But the public relations blitz that began during the campaign wo n't be limited to Europe in the Obama administration , as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demonstrated when she traveled to Southeast Asia this week . `` We 're reaching out to the entire world , '' she said in Indonesia . `` It 's not only the ASEAN countries that feel like the United States has been absent . '' Watch more of Clinton 's trip to Asia » . A survey released by the Pew Global Attitudes Project in December indicates that between 2002 and 2008 , favorable opinion of the United States declined in 14 out of the 19 countries polled . In Indonesia , where Clinton visited Wednesday and where Obama spent part of his childhood , favorable opinion of the United States plummeted from 61 percent to just 37 percent . Americans appear confident that world opinion can change under the new president . Last year , when Bush was president , only 24 percent of Americans believed world leaders respected the U.S. president , according to a recent Gallup poll . Now that Obama is in office , two-thirds of Americans believe the president is respected by world leaders . But Americans do n't think global attitudes toward the United States have shifted significantly . Just 45 percent of Americans now believe the country rates favorably in the eyes of the world , Gallup found . That 's only two points higher than last year . Americans and the rest of the world are waiting to see what kinds of policy changes President Obama will make . Watch more on Obama 's visit to Canada » . The biggest change so far ? Closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . More changes have been promised . `` This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the Middle East , '' Obama said in Berlin . He also promised action on climate change . `` This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet , '' he said in the same speech . Canada -- where on Thursday Obama made his first foreign trip as president -- is one country where opinion may be shifting in America 's favor . Just 36 percent of Canadians say their country 's relationship with the United States has been good during the last couple of years , according to a recent Canadian Press/Harris-Decima survey . But more than twice that many -- 74 percent -- expect relations to be good in coming years . However , there are some thorny problems ahead for the two countries , particularly regarding Afghanistan . Obama has announced he will send an additional 17,000 U.S. troops to that country . But when Canadians were asked about extending their own troops ' mission in Afghanistan , they were opposed by nearly 2 to 1 . The world loves Obama . But does the world love the United States ? That relationship still needs some work .
Schneider : `` The world loves Obama . He is the first black president and he has a lot of charisma, but I think that his popularity will wane in time because people are tired of him being so politically correct. " Obama visits Canada on Thursday to throngs of cheering crowds . Obama vowed during the campaign to remake the image of the United States . Americans appear confident world opinion can change under Obama .