As President Barack Obama prepares for his second inauguration tomorrow (Australian time), findings from a recent Harris Poll of 2,200 adults show that a slight majority of Americans are feeling hopeful about the President's second term.
Just over half (52%) of US adults describe themselves as very or somewhat happy about President Obama beginning his second term, considerably more than indicate being very or somewhat upset (39%). Similarly, nearly half of Americans (47%) believe things will be better for the country at the end of the President's second term, putting this sentiment well ahead of feelings that things will be much or somewhat worse (35%) or exactly the same (18%). Responses largely fell along party lines, as anticipated; political independents were evenly split on these questions, but were more divided on
Ratings have largely improved for the President over the past two years in terms of how well Americans feel he is tackling hot button topics. Issues where Obama's combined ‘Excellent’ plus ‘Pretty good’ overall job ratings show the most dramatic improvements include:
- Jobs: 29% in February 2011 compared with 39% in January 2013
- Education: 39% compared with 47%
- Healthcare: 37% compared with 43%, and
- Economy: 33% compared with 39%.
The Road Ahead
When asked which two domestic issues from a provided list they would like to see the Obama administration focus on first, the economy tops the list at 61%, followed by jobs at 45% and more distantly by healthcare (28%).
When asked, unprompted, to name the one issue or concern they felt was the most important for President Obama and his administration to address, after the economy, healthcare was the top response at nearly 1 in 5 adults (17%). The other three issues rounding out the ‘top 5’ are jobs/unemployment (10%), government spending/debt (8%) and gun control (7%).
Women are more likely to prioritise healthcare above all other issues, at 21% compared with 13% for men. The priorities also show marked changes since the same time four years ago at the first Obama inauguration. Compared with January 2009:
- Healthcare is down slightly: from 21% to 17%
- Jobs/unemployment mentions have doubled: 5% to 10%
- Government spending/debt has gone from an also-ran (1%) to the third most frequent mention (8%), and
- Gun control related comments have gone from negligible mentions in 2009 to the fourth highest current priority (<1% to 7%) on the back of the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut in December.
The Australian election is due to be held in the second half of 2013.
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