Three in four Americans believe that President-elect Barack Obama is making strong, thoughtful decisions as he prepares to take over as the nation’s 44th commander in chief, a new poll shows. When George W. Bush took the helm of power in 2001, six in 10 Americans saw him as a strong and decisive leader. Obama’s strongest suit, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, is his ability to inspire and his apparent honesty. “That’s the best number an incoming president has gotten on that dimension since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. Read more here.

Obama is more popular than any other incoming president. A majority of Americans are confident in Barack Obama’s ability to govern and unify the country, with many of the people who didn’t vote for him now seeing him in a positive light, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The poll found that 73 percent of adults approve of the way he is handling the transition and his preparations for becoming president.  The polling also shows that the nation is more unified around Obama than it was for either Bill Clinton in 1992 or George W. Bush in 2000. Americans say the challenges, too, are greater, with 77 percent of those surveyed predicting Obama will face bigger problems than most recent presidents have. Additionally, Obama enjoys the ranking as the most popular Democrat while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holds the ranking as the most liked Republican, according to the poll.
The car bailout plan inches a step closer to reality. U.S. House lawmakers approved a $14 billion loan bailout for the U.S. automakers overnight, but Senate Republicans are vowing to do all they can to stop the bill. The stopgap measure was approved by a vote of 237 to 170. The House measure requires the three major U.S. automakers – Chrysler, Ford and General Motors – return to Congress in March with a plan that will make them financially viable, and calls for a car czar to be appointed to oversee a restructuring of the companies that will make them more competitive. But Senate Republicans say the plan doesn’t go far enough, and vow to kill the proposal. “I don’t think the votes are there on our side of the aisle,” said Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, one of few vocal Republican backers of the bill, according to CNN.  Even as some senators oppose any assistance to the automakers, the White House was pointing out that if the measure fails, it would be disastrous to the economy because of the hundreds of thousands of jobs that would be lost nationwide. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino pointed out that many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle believe that allowing “a disorderly bankruptcy could be fatal to U.S. automakers and have devastating impacts on jobs, families and our economy.” Senate leaders vow to stay the weekend to vote on the measure.