Atheists For Obama

The Barna Group, one of the seemingly hundreds of polling companies out there, has released data on how different religious groups will vote in the upcoming presidential election. McCain doesn't do too well anywhere, and does especially poor among atheist and agnostic voters, losing to Obama by a 55% to 17% margin:

For the most part, the various faith communities of the U.S. currently support Sen. Obama for the presidency. Among the 19 faith segments that The Barna Group tracks, evangelicals were the only segment to throw its support to Sen. McCain. Among the larger faith niches to support Sen. Obama are non-evangelical born again Christians (43% to 31%); notional Christians (44% to 28%); people aligned with faiths other than Christianity (56% to 24%); atheists and agnostics (55% to 17%); Catholics (39% vs. 29%); and Protestants (43% to 34%). In fact, if the current preferences stand pat, this would mark the first time in more than two decades that the born again vote has swung toward the Democratic candidate.

An impressive showing for Obama, but if this poll becomes highly circulated, I can see how it would be a liability for him. Since atheists are still widely disliked in America, McCain has a ready made attack ad linking us heathen non-believers to Obama. And with some people already believing Obama is a Muslim, maybe McCain could paint him as some kind of Islamic atheist.