Obama Gets High Marks for 1st Month

But Survey Finds Sharp Erosion in Bipartisan Support

By Michael A. Fletcher and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress tonight, he is receiving strong reviews for his first full month in office, but deep partisan fault lines are quickly reemerging.

Large majorities of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll support his $787 billion economic stimulus package and the recently unveiled $75 billion plan to stem mortgage foreclosures. Nearly seven in 10 poll respondents said Obama is delivering on his pledge to bring needed change to Washington, and about eight in 10 said he is meeting or exceeding their expectations. At the same time, however, the bipartisan support he enjoyed as he prepared to take office has eroded substantially amid stiff Republican opposition to his major economic initiatives.

Thirty-seven percent of Republicans now approve of how he has done his job, a sharp drop from a month ago, when 62 percent gave him good marks for his handling of the transition. Also, nearly seven in 10 Americans oppose giving $14 billion in new loans to automakers General Motors and Chrysler, something Obama is considering in an effort to prop up the ailing industry and preserve jobs.

In his speech to Congress, Obama is expected to further outline his agenda for making health care more accessible and bolstering support for alternative energy, while explaining how he envisions his actions will lift the nation's economy. The president, who spent his first weeks in office championing the huge federal outlays called for in his stimulus package, is shifting the focus to his pledge to rein in federal spending, which he has called crucial to the nation's long-term prosperity.

(More here.)