Atheists are very unpopular.

There's a recent poll asking Americans the following question:

If your party nominated a generally well-qualified candidate for President who was _____, would you vote for that person?

Catholic? Sure. 95% yes. Black? Not a problem -- 94%. A woman? 88%, a number high enough to keep us from despairing too deeply about the possibility of a Clinton nomination. Even being Mormon, like Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, doesn't disqualify you from the job, as 72% of respondents said they'd give a Mormon their vote.

Here, it starts to get interesting. Rudy Giuliani, current Republican frontrunner for the nomination, has been married 3 times. But only 67% said they'd vote for someone on their 3rd marriage. John McCain, the other Republican frontrunner, was born in 1936. He'd be 72 years old at inauguration if he were to win. But being 72 years old was a barrier to all but 57% of respondents. To me, that's a shocking number, and it says a lot about how Democrats should talk about these guys.

And if you're homosexual, the nation is not ready for you to be President yet. You only get 55% yes in this poll. And atheists, apparently, are even more hated than gays, which blows my mind. An atheist gets 45%. Only 45% of people would vote for a well-qualified atheist that earned their party's nomination.

I know that my liberal Portland enclave, plenty of people would vote for an atheist, and maybe that skews my perception. But what, in Americans' minds is the connection between God and President, exactly? Is God on "our side"? Would he turn against us, strike us down, if we entrusted our nation to a heathen?

I guess we won't find out for quite a few years.