welcome back to "hardball." a new gallup poll shows that pope francis' overall popularity in the u.s. has dropped markedly in the last year. today 59% overall view him favorably while in 2014 was up there at 76%. the biggest drop was with political conservatives, going from 72% down to a minority position of 45%. and with u.s. catholics, the pope's popularity dropped 18 points, going from 89% to 71%, which is still pretty good. this comes as the pope is becoming a factor in american politics. catholic presidential candidates are being forced to contend with the pontiff's policy positions on income inequality climate change. and in september, the pontiff will address a joint session of the u.s. congress here at the request of speaker john boehner himself, a roman catholic. joining me at the roundtable is clarence page of the chicago tribune, susan milligan of u.s. news and world report, and alex seitz-wald. i am roman catholic. the years of almost pick your cafeteria catholics, the conservatives love the pope's position on certain things. obviously life and same sex. the liberals like war and capital punishment and immigration.