Will Obama Be a Successful President? Poll Says the Jury Is Still Out

While a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds President Obama well positioned for a re-election run in 2012 despite his currently low approval ratings and political headaches, the jury is still out when it comes to whether Americans think he will be a successful president or not.

Forty-two percent of those surveyed in the poll, conducted Dec. 9-13, say they are not ready to make a judgment. Twenty-eight percent believe he will be a successful president, 29 percent do not and 1 percent are not sure.

Fifty-four percent are only somewhat confident or not at all confident that Obama has the right set of goals and policies to be president (with 36 percent in the "not at all" category, while 36 percent are quite or extremely confident (with 15 percent in the "extremely" column).

Thirty-five percent believe Obama got the message voters sent in the midterm elections and is making adjustments, 29 percent say he got the message but is not making adjustments, 17 percent don't think he got the message at all, and 15 percent said the elections did not send a message as far as Obama was concerned. Four percent were undecided.

Thirty-six percent say he needs to focus more on the economy in the next two years, a number far bigger than that for any other issue. Seventeen percent says he needs to bring home the troops in Afghanistan during that time frame, 15 percent say he needs to focus more on reducing the deficit, 13 percent want him to concentrate on helping the middle class and 10 percent want him to work more closely with the Republicans.

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