by Mark Silva
The question of what Catholic Americans think about President Barack Obama's performance in office so far - two-thirds approve - and what they think of his planned appearance at Notre Dame - those who have an opinion about it are largely for it - raises the question of Obama's standing among people of other faiths or no particular faith.
The Gallup Poll has attempted to answer that question today with a sweeping review of daily tracking polls run since the start of Obama's presidency - taking a broad look at nearly 100,000 interviews conducted between Jan. 21 and April 29. This is what they have found:
85 percent of Muslims surveyed approve of Obama's performance.
79 percent of Jews surveyed approve.
73 percent of nonreligious people approve.
67 percent of Catholics approve.
57 percent of Protestants approve.
45 percent of Mormons approve.
The president's apparent support among Muslims is notable for a Christian president who has attempted to reach out to the Islamic world to repair relations torn by the war in Iraq and the former administration's war on terrorism.
"The commonality between U.S. Jews and Muslims in their broad approval of Obama is notable given the global friction between Jews and Muslims with respect to Mideast politics,'' Gallup notes. This is noteable in the context of Obama's attempt to reach out to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as he is this month, in a bid to restart negotiations over a "two-state solution'' for the Middle East.
At the same time, the president's support among Jews is not surprising, inasmuch as they are overwhelmingly Democratic and largely voted for Obama - despite an aggressive campaign by Jewish Republicans during the 2008 campaign to question Obama's allegiance to Israel.
"Democratic Jews supported Hillary Clinton by a slight margin over Obama in the battle for the Democratic nomination last year,'' Gallup notes, "but they gradually came around to supporting him in large numbers for the general election.
The breadth of this survey, nearly 100,000 people interviewed, is such that some very small margins of error are attached to these findings - with the exception of the smallest sample, the 350 Muslims interviewed. The possible margin there is 6 percent.
The surveys included interviews with approximately 55,000 Protestants (defined in this study as those who identify themselves either as Protestant or with another non-Catholic Christian religion), 24,000 Catholics, 2,500 Jews, 1,600 Mormons, and 350 Muslims.
The possible margins of error: 0.5 percent for the Protestants, 1 percent for Catholics, 1 percent for the nonreligious, 3 percent for Mormons, and 6 percent for Muslims.
Comments
It's pretty significant and shouldn't be understated, that Jews and Muslims are among his top supporters. They both support the same guy. That's HUGE.
From here, it's a matter of what he does with it, because it's a unique situation that's NEVER before happened with an American president.
Posted by: Joe | May 1, 2009 9:31 AM
The 67% of catholics that are so called Obama backers aren't real catholics, their "Cafeteria Catholics".
That's because they pick and choose what part of the doctrine they wish to follow. Any good catholic in good conscience would not have voted for Obama due to his pro abortion and gay marriage stances. Its not a women's right issue, its rather an issue of murder. If it were a women's right issue then they should used the right of abstinence.
Posted by: Paul | May 1, 2009 10:08 AM
The 67% of catholics that are so called Obama backers aren't real catholics, their "Cafeteria Catholics".
Posted by: Paul | May 1, 2009 10:08 AM
Paul proving how inclusive the republican party is. Not "catholic enough", not "american enough". If you don't follow the lock-step you are just another piece of garbage to the "great" Americans.
Posted by: bill r. | May 1, 2009 10:49 AM
I'd say that any president who can bring muslims, jews and catholics together is a uniter, not a divider.
Posted by: Grandblvd03 | May 1, 2009 10:58 AM
Some Obama numbers are dropping like a lead balloon:
"President Obama drew 28.8 million viewers for his third prime-time news conference, which was a 29 percent drop from his second, according to Nielsen. And to compare, the first of his presidency drew 49.5 million viewers."
From politico.com, which the Swamp writers often cite when citing helps their man Obama. Is anyone surprised that The Swamp writers "missed" this item?
Posted by: Party gal | May 1, 2009 11:21 AM
Party gal = Bruce
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | May 1, 2009 12:18 PM
Oh goody...another of the rabid who sees numbers dropping like crazy. It's so obvious how could we miss it? It's like finding WMDs in Iraq it's so easy.
Posted by: bill r. | May 1, 2009 12:50 PM
re; Bill r, Your kidding right. If anyone is in lock step its the Dems, anf the unions, and the people that want a free ride.
Posted by: Paul | May 1, 2009 3:10 PM
Joe,
Get a clue. The Jewish community has been behind the democrats for decades. Considering it was the Republicans that decided to fight the war on Islamic extremism after it was ounted on by the democrats, there will be a lot of fallout from the Muslim community
Posted by: Terry | May 1, 2009 8:35 PM
Paul proving that 67% of Catholics have working brains.
Remember Paul; The Official Church has only recently admitted that Galileo was correct. The Official Catholic Church has very little credibility on,,,, anything.
Posted by: C.Morris✈ | May 1, 2009 9:08 PM
Yes Paul, we are in 'lockstep'. And we won't stop lockstepin' until your right wing oligarchy is forced into the dustbin of history!
Posted by: The LeninSisters | May 1, 2009 9:18 PM
"Some Obama numbers are dropping like a lead balloon:"
A hilarious posit from 'Brucina'.
I'm an Obama supporter and I didn't watch the press conference.
Posted by: C.Morris✈ | May 1, 2009 9:21 PM