President-elect Barack Obama finishes speaking about the economy, on Thursday, January 8, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. When George Bush lifts off in his helicopter on Inauguration Day, leaving Washington to make way for Barack Obama, he may not be the only thing disappearing into the horizon. To a number of social analysts, historians, bloggers and ordinary Americans, January 20 will symbolise the passing of an entire generation: the baby boomer years. - AP

NEW YORK (AP):

Barack Obama enters the White House with public expectations of his success far higher than for any president in a generation, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll.

On the eve of his Jan. 20 inauguration, the poll found that 65 per cent of those surveyed believe Obama will be an "above average" president or better, including 28 per cent who think he will be "outstanding."

According to previous pre-inauguration polls, just 47 per cent believed George W. Bush would be an "above average" or "out-standing" president when he entered his first term, 56 per cent thought Bill Clinton would be "above average" or better and 38 per cent thought George H.W. Bush would be. The earlier pre-inaugural numbers all came from the Gallup Poll, except for Clinton's, which came from the ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Economic crisis

With the United States facing the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the poll found broad optimism that Obama could help turn things around. Seventy-one per cent of those polled said the economy will likely improve during the first year of his presidency; 65 per cent said unemployment will go down; 72 per cent said the stock market would be on the rise; and 63 per cent said their personal economic situation would improve.

"He cannot not succeed. He has to succeed because the world really depends on him right now," said Richard Kern, 51, who works in a home remodeling business in Bernalillo, N.M. "We're all hanging in by the threads of our shoes, waiting for the economy to break. We need good news."

Leadership skills

Respondents also gave the president-elect high marks for his leadership skills and empathy, particularly for the concerns of the middle class.

Even Ronald Reagan, who won a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in 1980 during another period of economic uncertainty, was viewed more skeptically than Obama before his inauguration. At the time, 51 per cent said Reagan would be a good or great president, according to the Gallup Poll.

The AP-GfK poll was conducted Jan. 9-14 and involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,001 randomly chosen adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Associated Press polling director Trevor Tompson and AP writer Christine Simmons in Washington contributed to this report.