Most Popular Politician in America

For some time, I've been referring to Obama as "the most popular politician in America" whenever people start imagining that we're really falling behind.  And I recently had someone ask me about that, as they weren't really sure if that was true.  But...who else would it be?  I mean, there really aren't that many people even known on the national level, and most of the ones who are known are infamous characters, with soiled reputations. 

So I went ahead and did a little looksie into the various people I could think of, including a few non-politicians.  And remember, these are people who aren't being held responsible for running the world, and in many cases, have no other responsibility than to impress people and aren't bound by the constraints of actually putting their money where their mouths are.  Oh, and these are "favorable" ratings, which are friendlier than "approval" ratings; which most of these folks don't have.

The top rival, of course, would be Sarah Palin.  Yet, Palin's favorable rating is 30% according to CBS, while 63% said she wouldn't be an effective president. CNN had her at 39% favorable, with 69% saying she isn't qualified to be president.
Glenn Beck has an 18% favorable rating, with 47% saying they didn't know enough about him to have an opinion.  Rush Limbaugh is a hero by comparison, with 23% of people having a positive attitude towards him.  He was better known, but also more hated.

George W has a 27% favorable rating over a year out of office, while presidential loser John McCain sits at 23% (though that was a recent development, and normally polls around 40%).  Oddly Darth Cheney polls about ten points higher than his former boss, even though he's a far more repellant man.  And finally, Karl "Turdblossum" Rove has a positive rating of 14%, while 38% say they don't even know who he is.  Ouch!
Minority Leader Boehner has a 12% favorable rating with 55% saying they never heard of him, according to Fox. While Gallup has his favorable at 29%.

And of the Republicans I saw, Mitt Romney did the best, getting 40% favorable; though of course, the Republican Base HATES Mitt Romney.

Meanwhile, Obama's favorable is still around 55%.  So even if Obama's competition gained five points and he lost five points, he'd still trounce his opponent by a nice margin.  Yet all the same, I'm sure we'll keep hearing about how much trouble he's in, and how his opponents have got him on the ropes; all evidence to the contrary.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, only 12% polled said they favored replacing Grant on the $50 bill with Reagan.  So, yea Grant fans!