Obama Gets High Marks on Transition

Source: US News

By Kenneth T. Walsh

President-elect Barack Obama is generating a huge amount of goodwill as he prepares to assume power on January 20. Eighty-two percent of Americans approve of the way he is handling his presidential transition, an increase of 3 percentage points since early December, according to the latest poll by CNN/Opinion Research Corp.

In contrast, President George W. Bush had a 65 percent approval rating during his transition in 2000, and Bill Clinton had a 67 percent rating in 1992. And a new USA Today survey shows that Obama is the most admired man in America, with 32 percent of respondents giving him that distinction. President Bush was second with 5 percent. It was the first time a president-elect was rated the most admired man since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. (Hillary Clinton was the most admired woman, with 20 percent.)

Why is Obama doing so well? His choices for his cabinet and White House staff have been popular, as have his promises to win congressional approval for a massive economic rescue package, which is still evolving.

But the most important factors in his popularity appear to be Americans' optimism that things will get better with a change at the White House (only 28 percent of Americans approve of Bush's job performance, according to an American Research Group poll) and Obama's capturing of the mood and faith of the country in many ways, according to Democratic strategists.

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He's bringing in people of all different colors (literally and figurativly). That's what we need right now and I know a lot of people might be tired of the whole "Team of Rivals" analogy but history doesn't lie. It worked out very well for Lincoln.