CONFUSION GROWS ABOUT THE PRESIDENT'S RELIGION & RELIGION AND POLITICS 19AUG10

Here is  a fascinating poll from the Pew Center For Research on the public perception of Pres Obama's religious beliefs. There is growing speculation he is a Muslim and not a Christian though he has publicly declared his faith as a Christian. Maybe those questioning Pres. Obama's faith would get a clearer view if they concentrated in removing the mote in their own eyes and start acting and living like Christians, or Jews or Muslims or whatever faith they are claiming....I think we wouldn't have the severity of all the problems we are facing as a nation if all these religious people actually walked their religious walk instead of just talking their religious talk. Click the header or the link below to see the entire survey, and I have also added it to the page The Great Debate of Our Season on this blog.
 
There is widespread -- and growing -- confusion about President Barack Obama's religious affiliation with one in five Americans now saying (incorrectly) that he is a Muslim, according to a new national poll conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Fully 18 percent of those tested in Pew's annual religion and public life survey said that Obama was a Muslim, a significant increase from a March 2009 Pew poll where 11 percent said the president adhered to the tenets of Islam.
(Worth noting: The Pew survey was conducted in late July and early August -- prior to the President's remarks about the New York City mosque.)
While nearly half of the Pew sample (48 percent) last March correctly identified Obama as a Christian that number, too, dropped precipitously -- down to 34 percent -- in the new Pew poll. The number of people who said they were unsure exactly what the President's religious affiliation was rose from 34 percent to 43 percent.
Not surprisingly, there was a strong linkage between those who wrongly believe Obama is a Muslim and those who disapprove of the job he is doing as president. Of the 41 percent who disapprove of the job he is doing, fully two-thirds identify say the President is a Muslim.
In terms of political affiliation, the sharpest rise in those who say Obama is a Muslim is among Republicans (up 14 points) since 2009. But, the religion question is also not purely partisan; among independents the number of those describing Obama as a Muslim is up eight points since last March and the number of Democrats identifying him correctly as a Christian is down from 55 percent to 46 percent.
"The overall picture here is of growing confusion or uncertainty about the President's own faith," said Alan Cooperman, associate director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
The poll suggests that the persistent untruths that dogged Obama's presidential campaign regarding his associations with Islam remain -- and are even growing -- as Obama finishes up his second year as the nation's commander-in-chief.
The political ramifications of the growing uncertainty regarding Obama's religious affiliation are more difficult to ascertain.
There is, without question, some significant level of partisanship inherent in questions about Obama's faith; the less you like the President, the more likely you are to say he is a Muslim. And, in truth, that 18 percent who falsely identify the President with the Islamic faith would almost certainly never be voting for him anyway.
Perhaps more important from an electoral perspective, however, is the growing number of people who don't know what religion the President identifies with. While most Americans don't tend to vote based on religious faith -- although being either a Muslim or a Mormon can, among certain demographic groups, complicate a politician's electoral calculus -- they do like to believe that their president is a man of faith.
Religion humanizes a president for many people, allows them to identify on a very basic level with the most powerful man in the world. For a president whose detractors have scored political points by painting him as aloof and uncaring, religion could be a bridge by which he connects to the average person. The Pew poll suggests work still remains to be done in building that connection.

Measuring Distrust of Washington: Who Is That Fifth American? 20APR10

The Pew Research Center on Monday released a poll on trust in government, finding precious little of it.

Distrust of Washington is especially rampant, with four of out five Americans expressing discontent with the federal government.

Is anyone surprised by this? Of course not. The first question you want to ask is, who is that fifth American?

It's been years since we've seen a positive balance on the pollster's favorite question: Are things in this country going in the right direction or are we on the wrong track? It's been as bad as 20 percent right and 75 percent wrong in 2008, and now it's a barely better 35 percent right and 65 percent wrong.

And when that ratio is bad, the government is always held responsible.

The Pew data also found a general sense of disaffection with national institutions other than the government. Banks and financial institutions got a 22 percent positive ( 69 percent negative), while large corporations did only slightly better at 25 percent positive (64 percent negative).

But no one expects banks and Big Business to be popular or reflect the will of the people. And their leaders don't have to face the voters, whose mood is likely to stay ugly for months to come.

And why not? Even if the economy is out of so-called Great Recession, the jobless numbers are not. So neither is consumer sentiment. The stimulus, meant to be a psychological boost as much as a material one, has had meager yields on both counts.

Reflecting distress from the economic meltdown of 2008, an increasing proportion of the populace believes it was ill-used in the bank rescue -- even it did keep the credit system working. That is why, with all the distrust in government, a clear majority stills wants Washington to do more to rein in Wall Street.

Beyond that, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- both the works of Washington -- drag on. Tensions around the world remain uncomfortably high, achievement scores in the schools uncomfortably low.

It seems that any time you hear about a federal agency, be it the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Mining Safety and Health Administration, they have somehow failed to prevent something. They may have their eye on Wall Street and the mining companies, yet Goldman Sachs and Massey Energy seem to let them do whatever they want.

And Congress? The lawmakers who are in some sense responsible for the rest of the government are the least trusted of all. They are the ones who repealed the old restraints on the banks and the financial system, the ones who allow mines to operate despite stacks of citations for unsafe conditions and the ones who vote to wage war around the world without taxes to pay for it.

A Sea Change

On top of all this, the nation is sensitized to its relationship with Washington because it is still absorbing a shock. That would be the shock of having President Barack Obama replace President George W. Bush. The shock applies in different ways to those who voted for it or against it.

The most fervent Obama backers may have had two shocks: Amazed that he won, they are now disappointed that Washington and the world did not change overnight. Those least supportive of the new president now say their worst fears are being confirmed.

But all sides are right to feel the ground shifting beneath them. The coming of Obama was not just a course correction, it was a sea change. The previous three decades had been dominated by a public philosophy embodied by President Ronald Reagan, who liked to say government wasn't the solution but the problem.

Reaganism rose in the late 1970s and conservatives went on the march. They won every presidential election except the Bill Clinton elections of 1992 and 1996 (both three-way contests won with a plurality). And if Clinton would never be confused with Reagan or the two Presidents Bush, his presidency often echoed their rhetoric of smaller government (as when he told the nation "the era of big government is over") and accomplished such goals as welfare cutbacks and a balanced federal budget.

Still, if the IDEA of government was more or less in retreat for 30 years, the REALITY of government was growing all along. And at times, it sought to expand its power and use it aggressively. Think of Clinton's early efforts to overhaul the health care system or restrict guns. Think of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, secret detention systems and surveillance of citizens within the U.S.

The 2008 election was felt on the left as the eruption of pent-up demand for government action and change. But a large number of other Americans arrived at Election Day feeling angry because the restraint of government promised by Reaganism had not been fulfilled.

Their unhappiness then was the mirror opposite of that expressed by Democrats. And now, eighteen months later, their distress at the stimulus plan and the health care bill are the mirror opposite of Obama backers' disappointment with the pace of change.

Whichever side of that mirror you may be on, it doesn't look good. Mix enough outrage on the right with enough disaffection on the left and you have one big unhappy country.

So again you wonder, who is that fifth American?