Poll: People see Obama as a nice guy

WASHINGTON (AP):

Nice guy, so-so president. Taking stock of President Barack Obama at the five-year mark in his term, less than a third of Americans consider him to be an above-average chief executive. Nearly twice as many find him likable.

A new Associated Press-GfK Poll finds the president's personal image to be on the rebound after taking a hit during the government shutdown late last year, with 58 per cent now sizing him up as very or somewhat likable. That's up nine percentage points from October, just after the shutdown.

economic woes

Yet, as Obama prepares to stand before Americans for his annual State of the Union address next Tuesday, people are largely pessimistic about the country's direction, down on the condition of the economy and doubtful it will bounce back anytime soon. Unemployment? Seventy per cent think it will go higher or stay the same.

Obama "wasn't a total disappointment", allows Joshua Parker, a 37-year-old small businessman in Smyrna, Tennessee. "He didn't put us into a Great Depression."

But Parker, a self-described political independent and conservative, suspects that someone who understood the economy better could have done more.