Editor's note: This is the eighth in a series of stories examining the top issues of concern for The Eagle-Tribune's 154 voters participating in the presidential campaign coverage project.



America needs friends.

That's what many Southern New Hampshire residents want the presidential candidates to know - America needs friends and the next president needs to deliver them.

Of voters polled by The Eagle-Tribune in Southern New Hampshire communities, 55 percent put the country's world image among the 10 most important issues they will consider when deciding who to vote for.

But, when voters spoke individually, they had different reasons for saying world image is a top priority.

"(We need) some ability to develop cooperation in pursuit of (terrorists)," said Joseph Roark, 38, an independent voter and Pelham police chief.

For Roark, who did not say which candidate or party he plans to support, winning friends abroad is important because the safety of this country depends on it. To fight terrorism, we need the cooperation of other governments, he said.

"I would be asking for every intelligence resource that (other nations) have," Roark said.

But for Nick Pangaro, 56, of Hampstead, there's more at stake than fighting terrorism.

"I think you need to start by recognizing that we've got a little bit of a problem here, and it's not just the U.S. versus everybody else," said Pangaro, a management consultant.

He thinks the current administration has alienated even the country's allies, hurting trade, security and the trust of American institutions. Even a new president will have problems convincing the world to trust us, Pangaro said.

"Whether they can go into the U.N. and go into different countries and say, 'Hey, we're a different country now,' I have no idea," the Democratic-leaning Pangaro said.

But Barbara Coish, 69, of Windham is much more optimistic.

"We could be doing better, but ... I'm not completely negative," said Coish, an independent who typically votes Republican.

Coish said she will vote for either Republican Mitt Romney or Democrat Joe Biden.

Coish is heavily involved in a foreign-exchange program that connects Windham students with students from Suzdal, Russia. Through that program, she has visited Russia 20 times since 1992.

While Russo-American relations have hit rough patches in recent years - over the possibility of an American missile shield in Eastern Europe and also widespread fear Russian President Vladimir Putin is undermining his country's fledgling democratic institutions - Coish is confident the relationship will work.

"It is very interesting because I speak to (exchange students) a lot ... when they are here and, for the most part, the Russian people do not fear the way (Putin) is going," she said. "It's only been 15 years now since they've come out of the Soviet regime, so from what I see, they're making rapid progress."

In other areas, too, Coish sees reason for optimism.

"I'm not as negative on the (Iraq) war as some people, and I think perhaps things are going better there than we hear," she said.

But Ola Lessard, a 38-year-old small-business owner in Londonderry, thinks the war has left American credibility in tatters.

"I think we've suffered some serious damage in terms of foreign policy and how we're viewed in the world," she said.

However the situation in Iraq turns out, other countries will be reluctant to trust us in the future because we attacked Iraq to get weapons of mass destruction that weren't there, she said.

The next president, she hopes, will look to nonmilitary solutions to America's problems.

"We always need to defend our country, but I think there are different ways to approach defending your country," she said.

Priscilla Flynn, a yoga teacher in Derry, agreed.

"I feel like we're ... just going in the totally wrong direction," she said. "I think we need to step back ... and let people ask us for help (before we try to help them)."

Flynn, 56, said she doesn't entirely blame President Bush for the nation's failures abroad. The United States naturally has "domineering tendencies," she said.

Although, she added, the current administration has made matters far, far worse.

"I don't believe this administration about anything," she said.