President Obama's job performance continues to meet with approval from most Americans, according to a poll released Friday by American Research Group (ARG). But his numbers settled a bit from previous very high levels as Obama addressed a multiplicity of problems related to the nation's economic downturn.

The survey of 1,100 adults nationally showed 56 percent approved of Obama's job performance while 37 percent disapproved and 7 percent were undecided.

While that put Obama's net approval rating at plus-19, that was a slip from plus-27 -- 60 percent to 33 percent -- in a February ARG poll.

The more recent ARG survey, taken March 16-19, coincided with a rough patch for Obama. His administration faced angry questions from many quarters about the origin of an obscure provision in the economic stimulus package enacted in February, which left the door open for financially crippled insurance industry giant AIG, the recipient of billions of dollars in federal bailout money, to pay millions of dollars of bonuses to its executives.

Sixty-five percent of voters are very or somewhat confident that Barack Obama will be able to turn around the economy while 33 percent are not too confident or not confident at all, according to a Newsweek/ Princeton Research poll conducted March 4-5. That's a net 13 point swing towards fewer people expressing confidence in Obama than Newsweek's mid-January poll.

When it comes to Obama's $787.2 billion economic stimulus plan, 40 percent call it a good start but say more spending is needed, 37 percent say it won't work and 15 percent say it's the right amount.

Congressional Republicans come out on the losing end of yet another poll when matched against Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers on job approval ratings. Obama's approval to disapproval numbers are 67 percent to 27 percent and congressional Democrats score 49 percent to 45 percent, while the Republicans register 60 percent disapproval compared to 34 percent who see them positively, according to a Diageo/Hotline poll conducted Feb. 28 - March 2.

Seventy percent of registered voters express confidence in Obama compared to 28 percent who do not. They expressed confidence in Obama and his administration to turn around the economy by 64 percent to 33 percent.

Americans approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as President by 60 percent to 26 percent and his handling of the economy by 56 percent to 31 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted Feb. 26 - Mar. 1. Sixty-eight percent have very or somewhat positive feelings about him, 12 percent are neutral, and 19 percent have somewhat or very negative views.

The poll also indicates that, so far, the Republican opposition to Obama's proposal and policies is working against them.

Sixty-seven percent say they feel more hopeful about what Obama is doing in terms of his leadership and plans for the country while 28 percent are more doubtful.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans who watched Barack Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress last night had a positive reaction to it, 24 percent said their reaction was somewhat positive and 8 percent registered a negative reaction, according to quick poll by CNN/Opinion Research. However, the pollster cautions that its sample was about 8 to 10 points more Democratic than the general public.

The number of viewers who thought Obama's policies would move the country in the right direction gew by 17 points after the speech. Eight-five percent said the speech made them feel more optimistic while 11 percent said they felt more pessimistic after it. The economic plan outlined by Obama in the speech drew the support of 82 percent of viewers.

There's been a lot of punditry about whether Democrats are getting the best of the Republicans in the opening round of the Obama administration by pushing through the big economic stimulus package or the Republicans are benefitting from having hung tough against it. The verdict among registered voters in a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted Feb. 17-18 comes down in Barack Obama's favor.

Voters say by 66 percent to 28 percent that Obama had tried to reach out to Republicans and be bipartisan about the package, and they say 60 percent to 33 percent that the Republicans have not sincerely tried to act in a bipartisan way. Overall, voters approve of the job congressional Democrats are doing by 46 percent to 45 percent and disapprove of the GOP's performance by 56 percent to 34 percent. Obama's approval to disapproval ratio is 60 percent to 26 percent, down from 65 percent to 16 percent in late January.

Support for the $787.2 billion stimulus package was 51 percent to 40 percent.

A plurality of Americans - and not a very big one - believe that the just-passed $787.2 billion stimulus package will help the economy, according to a Rasmussen Report poll conducted Feb. 14-15.

Thirty-eight percent say it will help, 29 percent say it will hurt and 24 percent predict it will have little impact. Thirty-two percent said that they more be more likely to vote for their representative if he or she supported the stimulus plan, 35 percent said less likely and 30 percent said it would have no impact on their decision.

Fifty percent believed the package primarily included new spending, 8 percent said it was mostly new tax cuts and 31 percent believed it to be an equal mix of spending and tax cuts. The bill contains $575 billion in new spending and $212 billion in tax cuts.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter did himself no political favors when he joined fellow Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine, in voting for $789 billion economic stimulus package, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Feb. 11.

Forty percent of likely Pennsylvania voters said his support for the package made it less likely that they would support him, 31 percent said more likely and 28 percent said it would have no impact. Overall, 47 percent of voters said they favored the measure and 41 percent opposed it. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans oppose the bill while 73 percent of Democrats favor it.

Among his fellow Republicans, 58 percent said his vote made it less likely that they would support him and that goes as well for 48 percent of independents.

In 2004, former Rep. Pat Toomey, currently president of the Club for Growth, ran against Specter, accusing him of being too liberal and came within 2 points of beating him in a primary even though the Republican establishment in the state lined up behind Specter. Toomey told The Hill in December that he hasn't ruled out a rematch.

President Obama over the past week has staged a campaign-style effort to build support for the big-dollar economic stimulus bill working its way through Congress - and a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday morning suggests that the blitz has boosted backing for the legislation and for Obama himself.

The poll showed 44 percent of respondents favored the stimulus plan while 40 percent were opposed. While still representing a near-even split in public opinion, the approval number was 7 percentage points higher than in a poll taken just a week earlier, when 36 percent of respondents approved of the stimulus proposal and 43 percent disapproved.

Obama also ticked back up in Rasmussen's daily tracking poll, which produces an "approval index" that measures the difference between those who say they strongly approve of the president's performance and those who say they strongly disapprove. The poll published Thursday showed 43 percent strongly approved and 24 percent strongly disapproved, for a Rasmussen index of plus-19.

A an announcement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of a deal on a $789.5 economic stimulus package comes as public support for passage has risen, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Feb. 10.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans support it versus 33 percent opposed, and increase from the 52 percent to 38 percent margin of a week ago.

Support among Democrats increased from 70 percent to 82 percent which Gallup said suggests that Barack Obama's sales campaign for the package had shown results. Support among independents rose only 1 point to 56 percent and by 4 points among Republicans to 28 percent.

While a narrow majority of Americans supports Barack Obama's $819 billion stimulus plan, that number has slipped from 57 percent to 51 percent since early January, with opposition to it rising from 22 percent to 34 percent, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted Feb. 4-8. Republicans oppose it 64 percent to 24 percent while Democrats favor it 70 percent to 15 percent and independents by 49 percent to 36 percent.

Most of those opposed to the package (61 percent) think it will be ineffective, while 27 percent believe the price tag is too high and 9 percent say it represents "too much government."

A CNN/Opinion Research poll conducted Feb. 7-8 had support for the bill at 54 percent to 45 percent.

President Obama's overall approval rating remained high and relatively steady over the past week, as he ratcheted up his efforts to push the $800 billion-plus economic stimulus legislation through Congress.

The rolling 3-day average in the Gallup organization's daily tracking poll reported Sunday showed 64 percent of respondents approved by Obama's performance since he took office nearly three weeks ago, while 22 percent disapproved. This amounted to a slight downtick in approval, from 66 percent last Monday, and a slight bump in disapproval, from 19 percent. Yet the plus-42 gap between approval and disapproval would be the envy of most politicians.

That might include Republicans in Congress -- the vast majority of whom have so far steadfastly opposed the stimulus legislation, based on their contention that it contains too much spending, and that much of that spending would be wasteful and would not stimulate the economy in the near-term.

More than half of Americans favor Congress passing a roughly $800 billion stimulus package, says a USA Today /Gallup poll . Fifty-two percent of Americans interviewed Wednesday night are in favor; 38 percent are opposed. These figures are nearly identical to those measured in Gallup polling last week, right before passage of the bill in the House, and are also in line with public support in early January. According to the new poll, 70 percent of Democrats nationwide favor the plan and 18 percent oppose it. Among Republicans, 24 percent are in favor and 72 percent are opposed -- nearly the reverse of the Democrats' position. Political independents fall somewhat closer to Democrats than to Republicans in their views, with 55 percent in favor. Perhaps in response to the heightened partisan debate in Congress over the merits of President Obama's approach to the stimulus plan, partisan differences in Americans' support have expanded slightly over the past month. This is particularly clear in terms of a slight decline in the percentage of Republicans favoring the plan, from 34 percent in early January to 24 percent today. Support among Democrats, however, has increased slightly.

A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Jan. 27-29 shows support for the economic stimulus package at lower levels than Gallup and Diageo/Hotline polls released yesterday.

In the Rasmussen survey, likely voters support the measure 42 percent to 39 percent with 19 percent undecided. Although asked in somewhat different language, Gallup had support for passage of the package at 52 percent to 37 percent and Diageo/Hotline had voters supporting the plan 54 percent to 34 percent. Rasmussen said one of the factors in its result was that support among unaffiliated voters had fallen from about an even divide a week ago, to 50 percent against.

Respondents also made clear that tax cuts were an important part of their consideration. Seventy percent said they would oppose a measure that depended only on government spending with no tax cuts.

Congressional Democrats appear to be basking in some of the glow of Barack Obama's high approval ratings so far with 49 percent giving positive marks to the job they are doing compared to 26 percent who approve of Republicans, according to a Diageo/Hotline poll conducted Jan. 21-24.

Right now, 55 percent of voters see Obama favorably and 21 percent "somewhat favorably" for a total positive mark of 76 percent. Voters approve of the way Obama is so far handling his presidency by 63 percent to 9 percent. By 75 percent to 22 percent, they are confident Obama will bring real change to the way things are done in Washington.

As President Barack Obama tries to win over reluctant Republicans on his economic stimulus plan, a slim majority of the American public wants to see Congress pass the roughly $800 billion package of new government spending and tax breaks. According to a Gallup Poll on Tuesday, 52 percent of the nation's adults favor congressional passage of plan and 37 percent are opposed, while 11 percent have no opinion.

A Diageo/Hotline poll conducted Jan. 21-24 put support for the stimulus plan at 54 percent to 34 percent even if it means increasing the federal deficit.

Lobbying for and against the bill has intensified in recent weeks.But despite all the focus on the plan, public opinion on the subject is virtually identical to where it stood three weeks ago. A Gallup Poll conducted Jan. 6-7 found 53 percent of Americans in favor of Congress passing a major economic stimulus program (then estimated at $775 billion) while 36 percent were opposed.