Poll Tracker

The three most important things Americans want to see Obama accomplish in his first term are improving the economy (39 percent), creating jobs (11 percent) and ending the Iraq war (10 percent). All other issues, including health care (8 percent) are in single digits.

While 83 percent of Americans believe conditions in the country have worsened compared to five years ago, 61 percent expect things to be better five years from now.

The poll also found the public is ready to have some patience with how long it will take for Obama to deal with the challenges the nation faces, with pluralities saying it will take at least two years for him to make progress on key issues. Thirty-eight percent say it will take two years for his administration to make real progress on the economy and another 18 percent say it will take his entire first term. Twenty-six percent say it will take two years to make inroads on health care and 20 percent say four years. Thirty-nine percent say it will take two years to achieve what he wants with Iraq and 15 percent say four years.

As for George Bush, he leaves office with 73 percent disapproving of the way he has done his job, making him the only recent President to leave office with a majority of Americans feeling that way. The approval to disapproval ratios for recent presidents were 68 percent to 20 percent for Bill Clinton, 54 percent to 40 percent for George H.W. Bush, 68 percent to 26 percent for Ronald Reagan, and 44 percent to 44 percent for Jimmy Carter.

The only major issue on which Bush did not suffer overwhelming negative numbers was on fighting terrorism, where 48 percent disapproved of his performance and 47 percent approved.