Barack Obama is still in the honeymoon phase of his transition although it remains to be seen whether he will match the approval numbers President Bush and form President Clinton had as events moved into the inauguration month of January, according to an ABC News poll conducted Nov. 19-23.
A separate Gallup analysis of polling data collected between Nov. 5-23 found Americans confident about Obama's ability to be a good president by 65 percent to 28 percent. As with the ABC poll, there is a sharp partisan divide with only 28 percent of Republicans holding that view.
In the ABC poll, sixty-seven percent gave Obama positive marks for how he is handling his transition. That was better than Clinton did (62 percent) in November 1992, but in January the Clinton number was 81 percent and for Bush, in 2001, it was 72 percent. The difference was that the partisan divide was less sharp in 2001 and 1992. Only 39 percent of Republicans approve of Obama's performance so far. Clinton in November had the approval of 44 percent of Republicans, a number that rose to 72 percent in January. Bush won the approval of 57 percent of Democrats. However, Clinton's acceptance by Republicans dropped off pretty quickly after he took office.
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