American public still thinks highly of Obama

Washington, Feb.15 (ANI): President Barack Obama's approval rating still remains well above 60 percent in tracking polls.

According to Politico, most state pollsters are saying that they have not seen any diminution in Obama's sky-high approval ratings, and no improvement in congressional Republicans' dismal numbers.

And that's before the stimulus creates billions of dollars in spending on popular programs, which could, at least temporarily, further boost Obama's popularity.

With the stimulus safely passed, Obama's aides are saying that they are relying on the steady support of a populace that, after a closely watched election, is tuning out the Washington cut and thrust.

"You shouldn't judge his success in reaching out by the vote count in either chamber of Congress - you've really got to judge it based more on what people in the country are thinking and saying," said John Del Cecato, a media adviser to Obama's campaign and former partner of Obama aide David Axelrod.

"If you look at any number of public polls, and private polls support this, it's not just Democrats and independents who support the way he's gone about advancing the stimulus plan - it's a certain amount of Republicans too."

A CBS News poll released February 5, for instance, found 81 percent of Americans said Obama is reaching out to congressional Republicans, while just 41 percent said the congressional Republicans were looking for bipartisanship.

"There have been a number of different surveys that have shown that Americans perceive that Obama is extending a hand of cooperation, a hand that the Republican leadership is not reciprocating - that's very striking in the data," said Mark Blumenthal, the editor of Pollster.com, who also noted that Obama has managed to remain popular even with some Republicans. (ANI)