The U.S. Senate a representative body? Yeah ... of the NRA

Gun checks outpoll Mother Teresa

By: Kevin Robillard, Politico.com
April 17, 2013 05:15 PM EDT

Universal background checks on gun purchases are more popular than Mother Teresa.

It’s been repeated ad nauseum by President Barack Obama, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other backers of expanded checks that 90 percent of the American people support universal background checks. Despite that support, the Senate vote 54-46 to defeat a bill to expand background checks crafted by Manchin and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Wednesday.

“How often do 90 percent of Americans agree on anything?” Obama asked during a White House event last month with victims of gun violence.

The answer, according to the nation’s pollsters: not very often. Not even on Mother Teresa.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, has found 90 percent support for only two things during its 12 years of existence, according to pollster Tom Jensen: Abraham Lincoln and Jesus Christ. Lincoln was viewed favorably by 91 percent of Americans in a November 2011 poll, and Jesus by 90 percent. Mother Teresa only warranted 83 percent support.

(More here.)