"O" AS IN "OTHER":

Half of Americans say Obama holds different religious values (Kevin Eckstrom, 11/18/10, Religion News Service)

President Obama faces significant challenges on how Americans perceive his religious faith, as 51 percent say his beliefs differ from their own, according to a new poll.

The 2010 post-election American Values Survey detected a link between views of the president's beliefs and his favorability ratings: More than nine in 10 Americans who see his religious beliefs as similar to their own view Obama favorably; eight in 10 those who see differences view the president unfavorably.

"Given that Americans generally want political leaders who share their values, this could be a serious problem for the president moving toward 2012," said Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted the poll with the Brookings Institution.