THE HAGUE, 31/10/08 - The Dutch support Barak Obama en masse, but they appear to know little about his ideas. These are much less 'progressive' than is thought, according to an investigation by free newspaper De Pers in partnership with TV programme EenVandaag among 21,000 members of the permanent EenVandaag Opinion Panel.

Obama, the Democratic candidate and favourite in the 4 November US elections, is against same-sex marriage, but 62 percent of the Dutch believe he is in favour of this. No less than 78 percent wrongly believe that Obama wants to abolish the death penalty, and 90 percent failed to believe that the statement "We will kill Osama bin Laden" was made by Obama. And three-quarters think that Obama wants to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan, while in fact he wants to send more troops there.

Various international surveys show that the Dutch are more one-sidedly behind Obama in his election battle with Republican John McCain than other nationalities. Among the Opinion Panel participants, three-quarters are for Obama. The majority of participants term him charismatic, good in debate, clear, pleasant and trustworthy.

None of the Dutch politicians are like Obama in style and presentation, in the opinion of the biggest group. But among those who did choose someone, 22 percent consider centre-left D66 leader Alexander Pechtold most like him. Pechtod is followed at some distance by three socialists: Wouter Bos and Ahmed Aboutaleb of Labour (PvdA) and Jan Marijnissen of the Socialist Party (SP).