Fox News Poll: Voters give mixed reviews for Obama's economy recovery efforts

Washington, Feb.11 (ANI): A Fox News poll released Thursday shows that while about half of the American voters think the "worst is over" (48 percent), the same number -- 48 percent-think the "worst is yet to come."

Overall, feelings on the economy have gotten more positive. The 48 percent who feel optimistic is up from a year ago when 37 percent said the worst was behind us (February 2010), and constitutes a major increase from two years ago when 29 percent thought so (January 2009).

Obama has avowed several times over the past year that the economy will be his singular focus.

By a large margin Americans do not think this has been the case. Some 27 percent agree he has truly made the economy his focus, while 69 percent disagree.

Meanwhile, 50 percent of voters think the Obama administration has created new jobs. That includes 21 percent who think the administration has mainly created private sector jobs, 14 percent mainly government jobs and 15 percent who say both.

Some 43 percent think the administration has failed to create any new jobs. Voters are skeptical about the president's ability to invest and save at the same time. Some 32 percent think President Obama will be able to both reduce the deficit and pay for the programs set forth in his State of the Union Address. Yet nearly twice as many -- 61 percent-doubt both can be accomplished.

Approval of the president is up, with 51 percent of voters saying they approve and 43 percent disapproving of the job Obama is doing. Last month 47 percent approved and 44 percent disapproved of his job performance (January 18-19, 2011).

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 911 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw and Company Research (r) from Feb. 7 to Feb. 9. For the total sample, it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. (ANI)