In his first meeting with Pope Francis Thursday, President Obama might have considered asking for some of the pontiff’s popularity.
Pope Francis currently enjoys an 85 percent approval rating among American Catholics and a 63 percent approval rating among all Americans, according to a new poll from the Saint Leo University Polling Institute.
Just 5 percent of American Catholics and 8 percent of all Americans have a negative view of Pope Francis’ job performance.
Meanwhile a new AP-GfK poll found that just 41 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s job performance, which is the second lowest point the poll has ever hit, according to the Washington Post. Some 59 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama, which is a percentage point greater than the previous high in December.
Obama and Francis met for nearly an hour Thursday. The pair exchanged gifts and smiles, and it was unclear if they discussed poll numbers.