God's Approval Rating?

President Obama probably should not feel bad about his latest approval numbers. He's only 10 percentage points below God!

Crazy as that sounds, a firm called Public Policy Polling asked 928 American voters in July whether or not they approved of God's performance -- "if God exists." Turns out, they approve of God's performance by 52 percent to 9 percent, with 40 percent undecided! Not very high, I'd say, and these are believers! (Obama's approval rating last week was 42 percent, according to a Gallup poll.)

When you look more closely, turns out that God's highest approval comes with creating the universe (71 percent to 5 percent), and handling the animal kingdom (56 percent to 11 percent). Surprisingly, God does OK with handling natural disasters as well (50 percent to 13 percent). But we're talking about God, after all! None of these sound great to me.

For the record, this puts God somewhere above Obama and below Bill Clinton at the time of his re-election in 1996. (That was pre-Monica Lewinsky, for those tracking history.)

Not surprisingly, the bottom can be claimed by Speaker John Boehner and both Republican and Democratic members of Congress with only 33 percent approvals. (It is even lower today than when this "God poll" was taken, thanks to the recent "debt mess" on Capitol Hill).

But it seems that even God can't escape the public's sour mood these days!