The Pew Center’s indispensable Global Attitudes project has a new survey packing some surprises, and more required reading for presidential candidates’ foreign policy sherpas. The 47-nation review of public opinion finds a clear correlation between growing per capita gross domestic product and contentment in developing nations. No great shock there. But it also found “broad support for free-market economic policies across Latin America, despite the election in the past decade of leftist leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.” In Africa, where poverty remains widespread, the Pew survey found more hopefulness about the future five years from now than in any other region.

 Also encouraging: a sharp decline in support for suicide bombing in predominantly Muslim nations, especially Lebanon, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

 There are several takeaways for presidential candidates. While leading Democratic candidates have generally supported  free trade policies, a recent trend has been to embrace populist criticism of U.S. trade practices. Bolstered by the Pew findings, they might want to examine how much U.S. free trade agreements – both current and pending – can help Latin America and other regions.

 On a broader scale, many of the top candidates from both parties have expressed a world view that calls for reaching out to moderates in the Muslim world. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), for example, wants to “empower forces of moderation” in the Muslim world, through access to education, health care, trade, and investment. Similarly, Republican Mitt Romney wants to support moderate Muslims by creating a “Partnership for Prosperity and Progress,” distributing resources from wealthy states to promote education, rule of law, human rights, and health care in “modernizing Islamic states.”

The survey suggests the time is ripe for such approaches.