Poll finds high hopes for Obama, economic plans

Associated Press ^ | January 16, 2009 | BETH FOUHY

[Baladas]

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans believe Barack Obama is on track to succeed and are optimistic he can help revive the struggling economy, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.

Public expectations for his performance in office far exceed those for any president in a generation.

On the eve of his inauguration Tuesday, the poll found that 65 percent of those surveyed believe Obama will be an "above average" president or better, including 28 percent who think he will be "outstanding."

According to previous pre-inauguration polls, just 47 percent believed George W. Bush would be an "above average" or "outstanding" president when he entered his first term, 56 percent thought Bill Clinton would be "above average" or better and 38 percent thought George H.W. Bush would be. The earlier pre-inaugural numbers all came from the Gallup Poll, except for Clinton's, which came from the ABC News/Washington Post poll.

With the U.S. facing the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the poll found broad optimism that Obama could help turn things around. Seventy-one percent of those polled said the economy will likely improve during the first year of his presidency; 65 percent said unemployment will go down; 72 percent said the stock market would be on the rise; and 63 percent said their personal economic situation would improve.

"He cannot not succeed. He has to succeed because the world really depends on him right now," said Richard Kern, 51, who works in a home remodeling business in Bernalillo, N.M.

Even Ronald Reagan, who won a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in 1980 during another period of economic uncertainty, was viewed more skeptically than Obama before his inauguration. At the time, 51 percent said Reagan would be a good or great president, according to the Gallup Poll.

[techcor]

The liberal media helps the process. They've also described our economic situation as "the worst since the depression". Bullcrap. Carter's administration was much worse. Bill Clinton was able to bad mouth the economy (with the help of the MSM) and after two years in office he took credit for four years of economic growth.
The first two years of Obama will be pretty much like Carter's but with the press always trumpeting good economic news and down playing any bad news. The MSM will always have him "exceeding expectations" and run polls about everyone's opimism.
Meanwhile everything could be going down the toilet.

[informavoracious]

High hopes from the crack pipe.

[11th Commandment]

Just what make that silly old liberal,

think he can turn that economy around

Everyone knows an Keynesian can't, turn an economy around!

But he has... HIGH Hopes

he's got high hopes

he's got that high Obama sky in the high hopes.

So anytime you're feeling low,

stead of letting in go,

just remember that lib..

Ops there goes another billion

Ops there goes another billion

Ops there goes another billion, trillion dollar debt.

KER PLOP

[jamese777]

Politics is perception. The normal business cycle may well move from recession to recovery during Obama’s term in office.
He will take credit for the recovery when in effect he had next to nothing to do with it. The mainstream media will assist in creating the perception that his policies were key.

[dogcaller]

Our gubermint skools at work.

[11th Commandment]

I do not think there will be a "normal" recovery because much of our problems are the result of government social engineering. Thus it will take longer for normal market corrections to take hold. For example, the government forcing BofA to buy Merrill is going to have huge ramifications and further government intervention.

As such, Obama will panic as he already is with huge government spending. 14% - 20% of GDP deficits will result in inflation.

It has been over 25 years since we have had to live with inflation, believe me, people will not like it.

Obama like FDR will just blame all the problems on his predecessor. So conservatives need to get on the record that the Obama policies are just continuation of the Bush polices. That way in 2012, we can run on real conservative free market principles instead of trying to two-step Bushonomics and trash Obamanomics.

[dforest]

You would have to be high to have any hope in this bull pucky.

Stoopid reigns. Be prepared for abject misery. The messiah is a major fraud who will sell misery as sacrifice.

[EBH]

I've been looking for the article I read this morning that indicated almost an utter and complete opposite. It even broke it down into dems./repubs. and how there is practically a level or NO confidence in 0bama’s plans.

Uh? So this poll to me is complete propaganda.