Just under 50 percent of respondents in a one-night poll Gallup conducted the day President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court rated his pick as "excellent" or "good." Two in every 10 described the choice as "only fair," while just under 15 percent said "poor." Twenty percent didn't have an opinion, the most Gallup has found in Supreme Court nominee polling dating back to John Roberts' nomination in the summer of 2005.

While Americans' initial reactions to the last four high court nominees have been positive on balance, Sotomayor's net positive of 14 percentage points is a strong second behind Roberts' 17 points. Samuel Alito was plus-4 and Harriet Miers was plus-3, both in 2005.

When broken down by political party and gender, the reaction becomes more polarized. While nearly three-quarters of Democrats rated Sotomayor's nomination as either "excellent" or "good," fewer than 30 percent of Republicans indicated so. On top of that, more than one-quarter described it as "poor." About 22 percent of independents said they have no opinion, compared to 19 percent of Republicans and only 11 percent of Democrats, perhaps reflecting the political and ideological bent of the Supreme Court debate.

Women generally rated the Sotomayor pick more positively than men, but the biggest disparity between the genders shows up in the bottom end of the scale. Just under 20 percent of men said the pick was "poor," while only 7 percent of women indicated so, the widest gender gap in Gallup's recent polling. The previous nomination, Bush's pick of Alito, produced an 8-point difference. Miers and Roberts had separations of just 1 percentage point each.

When asked what factors they think played into Obama's decision, respondents overwhelmingly said her nearly 20 years on the appellate bench (61 percent called it "very important"), followed by her intellect (59 percent) and her views on major issues and past judicial decisions (52 percent). Reinforcing past polling, the two that respondents thought factored into the decision least were her gender and ethnicity (39 percent and 34 percent, respectively).

Here's Gallup's breakdown of party reaction for the last four Supreme Court nominees: