The number of Americans believing that the country is on the right track is still a minority but it has jumped since February to its highest level since 2004, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted March 26-29.
It also was clear from the poll that the public is not yet ready to assign the responsibility for the current state of the economy to President Obama. Asked whom they blamed most for the country's economic plight, 80 percent singled out the banks, 80 percent blamed business in general, 72 percent blamed consumers, 70 percent fingered former President Bush and only 26 percent named Obama.
Forty-two percent say the country is headed in the right direction compared to 57 percent who still say it is on the wrong track. That's an improvement over last month when 31 percent said the country was on the right track and 67 percent said it was on the wrong track. The last time the number of those with the positive view was as high as 42 percent was in April 2004. There was also improvement with the number of Americans who thought the economy was getting better, with that percentage rising from 14 percent to 27 percent, although 36 percent said it was getting worse and 36 percent said it was about the same.
Sixty-four percent of Americans are very or fairly confident that Obama's economic program will improve the economy while 35 percent do not share that view. While those expressing confidence were still a substantial majority, that represented a net loss of 15 points since January.
The public trusts Obama more than the Republicans to handle the economy by 58 percent to 25 percent.
Obama's job approval ratio was 66 percent to 29 percent, not much different than a month ago.
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