Poll Finds Americans Hopeful, But Realistic, About Obama

clipped from www.nytimes.com President-elect Barack Obama is riding a powerful wave of optimism into the White House, with Americans confident he can turn the economy around but prepared to give him years to deal with the crush of problems he faces starting Tuesday, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. Most Americans said they did not expect real progress in improving the economy, reforming the health care system or ending the war in Iraq — three of the central promises of Mr. Obama’s campaign — for at least two years. The poll found that two-thirds of respondents think the recession will last two years or longer. Mr. Bush is leaving office with just 22 percent of Americans offering a favorable view of how he handled the eight years of his presidency, a record low, and firmly identified with the economic crisis Mr. Obama is inheriting. More than 80 percent of respondents said the nation was in worse shape today than it was five years ago.

While some have argued that expectations for the new president are "too high," the findings of this poll shows that may not be the case. People seem to realize that we're in this for the long haul.

Which is bad news for Republicans, whose only hope at this point is impatience by 2010. These numbers could easily change between now and then, but the fact that people are expecting a long period of bad news that they won't blame Obama for can't be welcome to GOPers.