Barack Obama continues to enjoy a post-election honeymoon with the public even as more than three-quarters say he will take office facing bigger challenges than most recent presidents, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted Dec. 5-8. That finding is in synch with other polls about how Americans are feeling about Obama during this transition.
An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted Dec. 3-8 found almost three-quarters of Americans approve of the way Obama has been preparing his administration.
While Obama has repeatedly said he has tried to walk the line between showing he'd be ready to hit the "ground running" while recognizing there can only be one president at a time, three-quarters of Americans in the Journal/NBC poll say he has had the "right level of involvement" in terms of policymaking in the face of the serious challenges facing the country.
About two-thirds are generally pleased with the appointments to his administration that Obama has made so far.
By large margins, Americans are also very or somewhat confident that Obama will improve America's image abroad, get the economy back on track, pull most troops out of Iraq in the next 16 months, shut down Guantanamo, rework trade deals in favor of the U.S., create or save 2.5 million jobs, create more cooperation between political parties, expand health care coverage and bolster American strength in Afghanistan. Though, it should be said that except for improving America's international image and closing Guantanamo, the "somewhats" are higher than the "verys."
One category where Americans are split in terms of their hopes for what Obama will accomplish is reducing the influence of lobbyists and special interests. They divide 47 percent each on whether this is very or somewhat likely, or very or somewhat unlikely.
Bad news for President Bush: 79 percent are not going to miss him when he leaves office and a plurality - 48 percent - think he will be regarded as "definitely worse than most" of the past several presidents.
On the economy, 36 percent believe it will improve in the next 12 months, 28 percent say it will get worse and 34 percent say it will stay about the same.
![[RSS]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[ARCHIVES]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/archives_icon.png){kind=icon}
Post A Comment