Rising Tide

Two and a half years ago, the Gallup poll found that only 37% of the U.S. public had an opinion about Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. Last week George Gallup reported on another set of McCarthy polls. Salient results: 1) about 80 million adult Americans (79%) now have an opinion, and 2) Joe McCarthy is more popular than ever before. Gallup's tables show the trend over the past eight months on the question: "In general, would you say you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy2"

Favorable Unfavorable No Opinion June 1953 35% 30% 35%

August 1953 34 42 24

Today 50 29 21

Broken down by parties, the figures show:

Favorable Unfavorable No Opinion Democrats 39% 38% 23%

Republicans 62 19 19

Independents. 53 28 19

Gallup found McCarthy's rating among religious groups to be:

Favorable Unfavorable No Opinion Protestants 49% 28% 23%

Catholics 58 23 19

Jewish 15 71 14

Senator McCarthy, by the poll's results, is most popular in the East, but even in the West, where he is least popular, he comes out ahead:

Favorable Unfavorable No Opinion East 55% 27% 18%

Midwest 48 27 25

South 47 30 23

West 46 36 18

There is little difference in his popularity among occupational groups:

Favorable Unfavorable No Opinion Bus. & Prof. 49% 39% 12%

White Collar 49 37 14

Farmers 48 29 23

Manual Workers 50 23 27

Among college graduates, 97% have opinions on McCarthy. The poll's results, broken down by education groups:

Favorable Unfavorable No Opinion

College Grads 47% 50% 3%

College (Incomplete) 51 38 11

High-School Grads 54 29 17

9-11 Grades 50 26 24

7-8 Grades 47 22 31

0-6 Grades 41 21 38

To gauge McCarthy's impact on specific political contests, Gallup asked another question: "Suppose, next fall, the Republican candidate for Congress in your district has McCarthy's support.

Would this make you more likely--or less likely--to vote for that congressional candidate?" The results indicate that McCarthy's popularity is not readily applicable to elections. The figures:

More Likely 21% Less Likely 26 Would Make No Difference 45 No Opinion 8

If McCarthy ran against Eisenhower for the presidential nomination in 1956, Gallup asked, which would people prefer:

Eisenhower 79%

McCarthy 9

No Opinion 12

More Democrats (11%) than Republicans (7%) prefer McCarthy over Ike. As a third-party candidate, against Ike and Stevenson, McCarthy's vote dipped to a paltry 5%.

Then the poll turned up this interesting result: at least one-sixth of those who like McCarthy generally, disapprove of his methods. On the question of general approval of McCarthy's methods, Gallup got this:

Approve 38%

Disapprove 47%

No Opinion 15%

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