Zeenews Bureau
Washington: One year since Barack Obama swept to power on a promise of change, only a slight majority of Americans approve of the way he is handling the White House job.
As per a CNN survey, 54 percent of people questioned approve of Obama’s way of handling his duties, with 45 percent saying they disapprove.
Interestingly, his approval rating of 54 percent is nearly identical to the 53 percent of the vote he won a year ago.
As per CNN Polling Director Keating Holland: “And in nearly every demographic category, the percent that approve of Obama today is within two to three points of the percent who voted for him in 2008. It's a different story when we turn to ideology. His approval rating among liberals is 7 points higher than the number of liberals who voted for him. But among conservatives, the number who like Obama today is down 10 points compared to his share of the vote among that group in 2008.”
However, with the survey suggesting that the President's approval rating remains over 50 percent, it implies that Americans are still with him despite the fact that they disapprove of his handling the economy and the two wars.
Notwithstanding the ratings, 12 months on the administration has no plans to celebrate Obama's historic victory, perhaps sensing there is little appetite for a party in such tough times.
Obama plans to take part in a diplomatic ceremony on Wednesday at the White House, before traveling north to a school in Wisconsin to take up the fight for another of his key priorities -- education reform.
A year ago his message was one of "Change We Can Believe In." Today he has honed his words to stress that "change is hard."
The first anniversary since his election comes as the unemployment figures for October are set to be unveiled on Friday. And with the number of jobless having already hit 9.8 percent in September -- the worst since 1983 -- there is likely to be little to cheer.
"We anticipate that we're going to continue to see some job losses in the weeks and months to come," Obama stressed Monday.
He highlighted that the actions taken by his government had "helped to stem what could have been a disastrous situation for the economy," adding "we are starting to see stabilization and indeed some improvement."
But he acknowledged that "we are still seeing production levels that are significantly below peak levels. And most distressing is the fact that job growth continues to lag."
Another of his key platforms, health care reform, has been bogged down in testy negotiations in Congress, but there is hope that a landmark deal could be reached before year's end. That would prove a real coup, after successive administrations struggled unsuccessfully with the issue.
Abroad, Obama's policy of engaging US foes has so far yielded few breakthroughs, although the promise of his fledgling presidency won him the Nobel Peace Prize last month.
But now the 48-year-old president, who came to power vowing to end one war, in Iraq, is mulling whether to escalate another -- in Afghanistan.
Despite everything though, he is still standing, with his approval rating above the crucial 50 percent barrier that defines a viable presidency.
For now, passing that rescue package stands as one of Obama's top domestic achievements. Democrats say it revived the economy and created a million jobs. Republicans call it a colossal waste of money.