We Love Obama, But Prefer Super Bowl

President-elect Obama is the most popular politician in America, according to a new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll. But Americans would rather attend the Super Bowl than his inauguration, the poll also shows.

Obama’s favorable ratings are a stratospheric 68 percent, the poll found, 11 points above the level he reached just before Election Day. Fully two in three independent voters view the incoming president positively. In all, just 24 percent said they see Obama unfavorably.

And officials in Washington are preparing for the physical manifestation of that popularity. With hotels around the city sold out hours after Obama won election and with District residents putting their own homes on the market for those looking for a place to crash, authorities say they expect as many as four million visitors to trek to the Mall in hopes of catching a glimpse of Obama’s inauguration.

But the average voter would rather have tickets to the Super Bowl than the inauguration, the poll shows. Half of voters said they wanted to see the championship game, while 38 percent said they’d rather have tickets for Obama’s big day.

The party breakdown is, well, predictable: 30 percent of Democrats would rather go to the Super Bowl, while 71 percent of Republicans would choose the game. Just 17 percent of GOP voters would take the inauguration tickets as 61 percent of Democrats say they would head to Washington.

The poll surveyed 900 registered voters Tuesday and Wednesday for a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.

– Reid Wilson