Americans confident Obama can fix US economy

WASHINGTON – Despite a divisive presidential campaign, nearly three quarters of Americans now say they think President-elect Barack Obama will make the changes needed to revive the struggling US economy, a new poll showed.

That’s a greater percentage of people expressing confidence in the Democrat’s campaign message of hope and change than the 52 percent who actually voted for him a week ago. It includes 44 percent of Republicans – an indication that many people who did not pick him are caught up in the wave of optimism that has swept the country since the 47-year-old senator’s groundbreaking election to the highest office in the country.

With Obama ending the Republican Party’s eight-year hold on the White House under President George W. Bush and about to become the first black US president, the Associated Press-GfK poll released Tuesday showed three quarters saying the election made them feel hopeful, six in 10 feeling proud and half expressing excitement.

Obama has been in Chicago working on forming his new government. On Tuesday he huddled in private with top advisers planning for the transfer of presidential power in January, taking a break only for a short public appearance to place a wreath at a memorial for veterans. His aides say no Cabinet positions are to be announced this week, though White House staff positions may come later in the week.

On Tuesday, Obama hired veteran Democrats Sam Nunn and Warren Christopher to head his transition teams at the Pentagon and State Department, senior government officials and others said Tuesday.

The AP-GfK survey found that nearly three-quarters of those polled said they’d like Obama to name some Republicans in his Cabinet, as the Democrat has said he would do. Seven in 10, or 72 percent, voice confidence the president-elect will make the changes needed to revive the stalling economy. Sixty-eight percent also said they think that when he takes office in January, Obama will be able to enact the policies he pushed during his campaign.

People signaled a willingness to wait on one of the keynote items of his agenda – tax cuts. Only about one in three, or 36 percent, said they wanted Obama to make income-tax cuts a top priority when he takes office, and even fewer wanted higher taxes on the rich to be a primary goal.

Highlighting anew how the Iraq war has faded as a paramount public concern, only half of people said they wanted Obama to make a US troop withdrawal a top focus upon taking office.

Instead, 84 percent said strengthening the economy should be a top-tier priority. Eighty percent also named creating jobs as a No. 1 order of business.

The AP-GfK poll was conducted Nov. 6-10 and involved cell and landline telephone interviews with 1,001 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Meanwhile, Bush spoke Tuesday about his meeting with his successor at the White House a day earlier. After a meeting to discuss world affairs, Obama wanted to scope out his young daughters’ future bedrooms in the White House, Bush said.

“One of things President-elect Obama was interested in – after we had our policy discussions – was his little girls. How would they like the White House?” Bush told CNN about Obama’s visit Monday. “It was interesting to watch him go upstairs, and he wanted to see where his little girls were going to sleep.”                            – AP