More People Liked Sotomayor than Elena Kagan, Poll Finds
Four in 10 Americans say President Obama made a good or excellent choice in nominating Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, a Gallup poll finds.
But Kagan's positive rating in the poll, conducted on May 10, when the president announced his nomination, is seven points lower than the favorability rating Justice Sonia Sotomayor received last year just after Mr. Obama nominated her to the court. Sotomayor and Kagan received similar negative ratings.
Gallup has conducted immediate reaction polls to gauge public opinion of Supreme Court nominees over the past five years -- Kagan's favorability rating is the lowest to date, while Justice John Roberts received the highest positive rating in 2005 at 51 percent. Americans were more likely to say they had no opinion of Kagan, at 24 percent, than they were for the other four nominees.
Predictably, Democrats are much more likely to call Kagan a good choice than Republicans, at 63 percent versus 18 percent. While men and women were equally likely to give a positive rating to Kagan's nomination, men were nearly twice as likely (at 19 percent) than women (10 percent) to call it a poor choice.
More on Elena Kagan's nomination:
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Kagan to Meet With Key Senators Wednesday
Washington Unplugged: Kagan Riles Both Sides of the Aisle
Jeff Sessions: Kagan Won't Shift Court on Abortion
Chip Reid: Why Kagan? In A Word: "Leadership"
Photos: Elena Kagan
CBSNews.com Special Report: Elena Kagan
