Poll Shows Americans Approve of Obama, Disaprove of Republicans on Stimulus Plan

Gallup released a poll that shows 61% of Americans approve of how President Obama is handling the Stimulus Plan. 48% approve of how Democrats in Congress are handling the Stimulus Plan, while just 31% approve of how Republicans in Congress handling the Stimulus Plan.

The data in particular show the sharp divide between the public's views of how Obama has handled efforts to pass a stimulus bill and its views of how the Republicans have handled this -- a divide that quantitatively produces a 36-point approval gap.

Some of this difference may be attributable to pre-existing views of the entities involved in the stimulus plan wrangling. President Obama's overall job approval rating (64% as of Sunday, Feb. 8) is very close to his approval rating on the stimulus, while Gallup's last measure of favorable ratings for the Republicans in Congress (in December 2008) was 25%.