Amazing how the world has changed. Now a pope has a favorability rating? Two views. Ten years ago, you never heard of negative favorability for a pope, that would have been a ludicrous as a favorability rating for God. Second, that this pope has stooped to the lowest level of politics (global warming, socialism...) is disgraceful and he has therefore earned a “favorability rating”...anything a liberal touches...dies. Catholics beware (this is what happened to the Episcopal church).
I seem to recall JPII being rated favorably from the very beginning, so I’d venture to say that such measures are nothing new. In JPII’s case, the rating seems to have been based upon the soundness of the principals he espoused.