PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION

Polls show faith in Obama

01-19-2009 | AP / REUTERS.

A new New York Times/CBS News poll shows Americans are prepared to give him years to deal with the crush of problems he faces

Panama Star WASHINGTON. Barack Obama warned Americans on Saturday of the vast challenges ahead as he rolled by train into Washington, kicking off three days of celebration of his inauguration as the 44th president of the United States.

Obama waved to crowds from the back of a vintage train car as he journeyed from Philadelphia to Washington, where he takes office on Tuesday amid the deepest economic crisis in generations and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast," Obama said as he began the trip in Philadelphia, evoking the patriots who launched the American fight for independence in the city in 1776.

"While our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not," Obama said. "What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed."

He stressed in Philadelphia and at later stops in Wilmington, Delaware and Baltimore that it would take time and sacrifice to turn the economy around.

"Such enormous challenges will not be solved quickly. There will be false starts and setbacks, frustrations and disappointments," Obama told about 40,000 cheering supporters in Baltimore.

"We will be called to show patience even as we act with fierce urgency," he said.

And Americans seem to be listening, as they display faith in Obama, mixed with patience.

A new New York Times/CBS News poll showed Americans were confident Obama could turn the economy around and prepared to give him years to deal with the crush of problems he faces. Majorities of Americans said they did not expect real progress on the economy, healthcare improvements or ending the war in Iraq for at least two years, the poll found.

President George W. Bush is leaving office with just 22 percent of Americans offering a favorable view of how he handled the eight years of his presidency, a record low. More than 80 percent of respondents said the nation was in worse shape today than it was five years ago.

By contrast, according to the New York Times/CBS News poll 79 percent were optimistic about the next four years under Mr. Obama, a level of good will for a new chief executive that exceeds that measured for any of the past five incoming presidents.

And it cuts across party lines: 58 percent of the respondents who said they voted for Mr. Obama’s opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona, said they were optimistic about the country in an Obama administration.