65% of Americans believe Obama will be an above average president

BARACK OBAMA will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States next Tuesday with two out of three Americans predicting that he will be “above average” and almost one in three expecting him to be “outstanding”, according to a poll published yesterday.

The Associated Press/GfK poll found that 65 per cent of Americans expect unemployment to go down during an Obama administration, 72 per cent believe the stock market will rise and 63 per cent predict that their personal economic situation will improve.

In earlier pre-inaugural polls, 47 per cent believed that President George Bush would be “above average” and 56 per cent predicted the same for Bill Clinton. Yesterday’s poll found that 61 per cent believe Mr Bush will go down in history as a belowaverage or poor president, including 31 per cent of Republicans, and fewer than one in three Republicans say he will be remembered as above average.

Congress laid the foundation for Mr Obama’s economic recovery plan on Thursday by approving a new infusion of cash for the financial industry, while Democrats proposed spending increases and tax cuts totalling $825 billion (€625 billion). Both houses debated Mr Obama’s call to release another $350 billion from the financial bailout package and, in a crucial Senate vote, the proposal was approved by 52 votes to 42.

“I know this wasn’t an easy vote because of the frustration so many of us share about how the first half of this plan was implemented,” Mr Obama said, promising to use as much as $100 billion of the new funds to help troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure.

In an interview with the Washington Post yesterday, the president-elect promised to convene a “fiscal responsibility summit” next month before delivering his first budget to Congress. He said his administration will begin confronting the issues of reforming Social Security (the federal pension system) and Medicare, which provides healthcare to senior citizens, as well as long-term budget deficits, soon after he takes office.

“What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further,” he said.

“We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else’s.”

Mr Obama said America’s financial troubles could not be separated from the long-term need to rein in healthcare costs, stabilise Social Security and prevent Medicare from bankrupting the government.

“This, by the way, is where there are going to be very difficult choices and issues of sacrifice and responsibility and duty,” he said.

“You have to have a president who is willing to spend some political capital on this. And I intend to spend some.”

Mr Obama received a further boost yesterday when former FBI director Louis Freeh urged the Senate to confirm Eric Holder as the next attorney general, saying the nominee has great integrity despite some mistakes. Mr Freeh said Mr Holder had made “terrible mistakes” leading up to Mr Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich, describing the pardon as “a corrupt act”.

Mr Freeh said, however, that Mr Holder “didn’t understand, he did not authorise, he certainly did not execute this pardon” and “will never allow himself again to be put in that position”.

Mr Holder told senators he did not believe the attorney general’s job was to serve as the president’s lawyer and promised to establish how much harm had been done to the justice department by political scandals under the Bush administration. “One of the things I’m going to have to do as attorney general in short order is basically do a damage assessment,” he said.

Inaugural oath: Judge refuses to delete words “so help me God”

WASHINGTON – A US federal judge has refused to order that the words "so help me God" be taken out of president-elect Barack Obama's inaugural oath or to stop ministers from praying at the inauguration ceremony next week.
US district judge Reggie Walton has turned down a request from a group of atheists and agnostics to force Chief Justice John Roberts not to add those words to the 35-word inaugural oath outlined in the US constitution.

The group, which is led by California atheist Michael Newdow, also wanted to prohibit Mr Obama's chosen inaugural ministers, Joseph Lowery and Rick Warren, from offering prayers at the inauguration.

Mr Newdow, who lost a Supreme Court battle to get the words "under God" taken out of the pledge of allegiance – an unofficial affirmation of fealty to the US flag recited at many public occasions – has failed in similar challenges to prevent the use of religious words and prayers at President George Bush's inaugurations.

The presidential oath of office dictated by the constitution is 35 words long and reads: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States."

The National Archives says the first American president, George Washington, added the words "so help me God" when he took the oath at his 1789 inaugural, and most presidents have used it since.

Mr Obama has already told Mr Roberts he wants to use the words "so help me God" when he takes the oath.

Judge Walton said he lacked the authority to order Mr Obama not to repeat the words, saying the president-elect had a right to free speech. – (AP)