While most Americans believe that the nation's health care system needs fundamental changes or to be completely rebuilt, 59 percent of registered voters believe that the legislation now moving through Congress will not benefit them personally compared to 31 percent who think it will, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted July 24-28.

Fifty-nine percent say from what they've read or heard of the legislation that it will increase costs for most Americans while 16 percent say it will have no effect and 15 percent believe it will reduce costs.

Three-quarters of those polled say they are very or somewhat concerned that a government plan to provide health care for all Americans will raise their taxes and about the same number worry that the cost of their own health care will go up. Sixty-nine percent believe that if the government creates a system of providing health care for all Americans, the quality of their own health care will get worse, compared to 53 percent who said so in June. Sixty-two percent worried that an overhaul would require them to change doctors compared to 53 percent in June

Americans favor by 72 percent to 20 percent the idea of a government-administered health insurance plan that would compete with private plans and, by 57 percent to 37 percent, they say they would be willing to pay higher taxes so that everyone could have coverage, according to a New York Times/CBS News pol conducted June 12-16.

Sixty-five percent say providing for the uninsured is a more serious problem right now compared to 26 percent who say that keeping costs down is the priority. Sixty-four percent say the federal government should guarantee health care for all compared to 30 percent whose say it is not the government's responsibility.

The rubber is meeting the road in the presidency of Barack Obama. While his job approval ratings remain high, Americans are focusing in on his policies and a substantial number are concerned with the way his recovery and other major proposals are expanding the deficit, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted June 12-16.

The poll found that support for his proposals on a range of issues - health care, rescuing the auto industry and closing Guantánamo - fall short of his general job approval ratings.

The improvement in the stock market may have lifted some peoples' spirits, but only 15 percent of the public considers the economy in good shape while 84 percent describe it as in bad shape, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted June 12-16.

However, 27 percent say the economy is getting better, up 7 points since early January before President Obama took office, and the number of those saying the economy was deteriorating has dropped in that time from 54 percent to 25 percent.

The percentage of voters who approve of the performance of beleaguered New York Gov. David Paterson has fallen to 30 percent with 54 percent disapproving of the job he is doing, according to a New York Times/Cornell University/NY1 poll conducted May 29-June 3. That's a dramatic reversal from his approval-to-disapproval ration in June 2008, which was 49 percent to 16 percent.

Seventy-one percent said someone else besides Paterson should be elected to a full-term in 2010.

He scores 27 percent or lower when respondents were asked if he cares about the needs of people like themselves, his ability to deal with a serious crisis, his ability to bring jobs to New York, his capacity for working with lawmakers to balance the budget, or whether he could reduce property taxes.

There are more than 1,200 days between now and the 2012 presidential election, and President Barack Obama's handling of his job over that long haul will determine whether he will be granted a second term in the White House. But the battery of national polls timed to his 100th day since taking office on Jan. 20 -- a milestone that Obama reached on Wednesday -- show that he at least has gotten off to a popular start.

Surveys released Wednesday by the Gallup organization and by the polling unit at Connecticut's Quinnipiac University both showed Obama with strong job approval ratings that cut across demographic lines and reach beyond the president's base of self-identified Democrats.

The Gallup poll showed Obama was given a favorable job approval rating by 65 percent of 3,534 adult respondents in tracking polls conducted April 20-26. The poll, which has a 2 percentage-point statistical margin of error, showed 29 percent disapproved of Obama's performance. The Quinnipiac poll of 2,041 registered voters conducted April 21-27 showed approval ratings of 59 percent positive and 30 percent negative, with a 2.2-point margin of error.

The strong job approval ratings that Barack Obama has enjoyed over his first three months as the nation's first African-American president also appear to be improving perceptions of race relations in the United States -- particularly among blacks.

This conclusion is based on a New York Times/CBS News poll taken April 22-26 and released Tuesday. The poll showed 27 percent of 973 adult respondents said race relations had improved since Obama became president, while only 6 percent said they had worsened. A majority, 63 percent, said race relations had not changed, and 4 percent said they did not know or gave no answer.

The idea that race relations have improved received somewhat stronger agreement among the 212 black respondents to the poll than among the 701 white respondents. Race relations were seen as improved by 32 percent of blacks and by 23 percent of whites. There was no statistically significant difference on the question of whether race relations have gotten worse: 5 percent of blacks and 7 percent of whites stated that view. The view that race relations haven't changed was held by 65 percent of whites and 59 percent of blacks.

President Obama's approval rating has gone up a notch since last month as has the number of Americans who believe the country is getting on the right track, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted April 1-5.

Sixty-six percent approve of Obama's performance while 24 percent disapprove compared to 64 percent to 20 percent in March. Fifty-three percent still think the country is on the wrong track compared to 39 percent who say it is headed in the right direction, but that's an improvement over the 57 percent to 35 percent ratio a month earlier. That is consistent with other polls which shows the number of Americans believing the country is on the right track increasing such as a Washington Post/ABC News survey in late March.

Americans approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president by 63 percent to 22 percent and by large margins they believe that he is trying to work with Republicans more than Republicans are trying to work with him, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted Feb. 18-22. The findings were in line with polls released today by Washington Post/ABC News and Gallup.

Seventy-seven percent were generally optimistic about the next four years under an Obama administration, 65 percent said Obama had the same priorities for the country that they did and 53 percent believe Obama cares about their problems "a lot" with another 30 percent saying he does "some."

Nearly three-quarters of those polled say Obama was trying to work with Republicans to get things done compared to 31 percent who said Republicans were trying to work with Obama. When the same question was asked about whether Democrats in Congress were trying to work with Republicans, 45 percent said they were and 43 percent said they weren't. Fifty-six percent said it was more important for Obama to stick to his policies than work with Republicans in a bipartisan way while 79 percent wanted Republicans to work with Obama than stick to their guns.

Barack Obama will take office Tuesday with 60 percent of Americans viewing him favorably and 79 percent expressing optimism about the next four years under his leadership, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted Jan. 11-15. Sixty-eight percent predict he will be a very good or good President and 70 percent believe he will bring about real change.

Eighty-two percent are very or somewhat confident Obama will make the right decisions about the economy, 72 percent say the same about Obama and Iraq, 68 percent believe he will make the right decisions on the Mideast and 76 percent are confident he will protect the U.S. from terrorism. The biggest concerns about Obama are his inexperience or that something will happen to him and he won't finish his term. Those views were expressed by 12 percent in the poll.