Saturday, September 29
Pope-ular
Source
The inimitable John Allen discusses a recent poll of Americans' perceptions of Benedict XVI:
A solid majority of Americans, 56 percent, describe Benedict XVI as “conservative" and just 5 percent see him as "liberal." Among college graduates, fully 71 percent say the pope is “conservative.” Likewise, 68 percent of American Catholics describe the pope as "conservative."
...
Nearly three-quarters of Americans, 73 percent, who say they’re familiar enough with Pope Benedict XVI to offer an opinion have a favorable view of the pontiff, according to a new poll. Benedict scored well not just among Catholics, but also white Evangelicals, black Protestants, and mainline Protestants.
...
While 84 percent of Americans who describe themselves as conservative Republicans have a favorable view of the pope, 59 percent of self-described liberal Democrats also give Benedict XVI high marks. [He has a] 68 percent approval rating among independents to 79 percent approval among conservative and moderate Democrats.
This makes Benedict roughly 3x as popular as the United States Congress, and a rather more than 2x as popular as President Bush.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
