WP: Optimism High About Obama Policies, Poll Finds (Nearly seven in 10, 76% approve Transition)

[Pirate Smile]

Optimism High About Obama Policies, Poll Finds
Majorities Concur on Economy, but Rifts Abound on Initial Priorities

By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 21, 2008; Page A01

Most Americans are optimistic about the policies that Barack Obama will pursue when he becomes the country's 44th president next month, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, and there is a widespread public desire that he quickly expand his focus beyond the economy, the dominant issue facing the country.

Majorities think Obama should help make major changes to the health-care system, enact new energy policies and institute a moratorium on home foreclosures. Majorities expect him to end U.S. involvement in Iraq, improve health care and turn around America's image abroad. But there is little consensus about where he should focus his efforts first, and partisan fault lines abound, setting up a potentially contentious period of initial lawmaking.

Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress have indicated that the first legislation offered in the new year will focus on the nation's flagging economy, an issue on which two-thirds of those polled said the new president and Congress should concentrate. A similar proportion, 65 percent, support a large stimulus package along the lines sketched out in recent days by the Obama transition team.
Large majorities want Obama to pursue a wide range of issues besides the economy, including 84 percent who want him to drive an effort to require electricity companies to increase the use of renewable sources of energy. A majority, 55 percent, want him to tackle the issue right after taking office in January.

-snip-
There is also bipartisan agreement that the federal government should increase spending on children's health insurance, which President Bush twice vetoed last year before signing an extension to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which expires in March.
A majority want Obama to make big changes to the country's health-care system, with 63 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of independents saying they want the changes right away.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/20/AR2008122001498.html?hpid=topnews