Over half of U.S. voters (54%) say they followed Very Closely news stories about Barack Obama’s first press conference as president-elect yesterday, and nearly as many (52%) say he set the right tone in his remarks.

Another 26% say they followed news of Obama’s Chicago press conference somewhat closely, and just six percent (6%) say they did not follow news of it at all, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken Friday night.

Twenty-eight percent (28%) do not think Obama set the right tone in his remarks. One-out-of-five (20%) are not sure.

Despite the criticism that has been leveled at the current occupant of the White House, just over half of voters (52%) expect President Obama to do a better job on the economy than President Bush. Thirty percent (30%) disagree, and 18 % are undecided.

Consumer confidence has fallen nine points since Election Day. There has been a significant decline in confidence among Republicans and unaffiliateds. The economic confidence of Democrats remains essentially unchanged.

Just 17% of workers now report their companies are hiring while 21% report layoffs are coming at their workplace, the most negative assessment ever in the Rasmussen Employment Index.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index for Saturday give Obama a +12 rating, unchanged from yesterday.

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Eighty-three percent (83%) of Democrats liked Obama’s tone, compared to 24% of Republicans and 41% of unaffiliated voters. Forty-nine percent (49%) of Republicans, 35% of unaffiliateds and seven percent (7%) of Democrats did not. Over a quarter of GOP voters (27%) are undecided.

A plurality of men (45%) liked the tone of Obama’s first press conference, as did women by a much more substantial 59% to 23% margin.

Fifty-three percent (53%) are at least somewhat confident that Obama and his economic team can deal effectively with the current economic crisis, including 33% who are Very Confident. Twenty percent (21%) are not at all confident of this.

While 58% of Democrats are Very Confident that an Obama administration can handle the nation’s economic woes, 38% of Republicans are not at all confident. Unaffiliated voters are fairly closely divided but are slightly less confident overall.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of investors are at least somewhat confident that Obama will deal effectively with the economic situation, compared to 66% of non-investors. By nearly three-to-one, non-investors think Obama will do a better job on the economy than Bush, as do investors by a narrower 51% to 32%.

In a survey taken the night before the press conference, 48% of voters said Obama will do a good or excellent job handling economic issues.
During the 20-minute press conference yesterday, the president-elect called on Congress and the Bush administration to approve a second economic stimulus plan right away. If that did not happen, he said it would be an urgent priority following his inauguration on January 20, along with an extension of unemployment benefits, passage of his tax-cut proposal and other economic measures.

He also made an unintentional swipe at former First Lady Nancy Reagan for which he later apologized in a phone call to her.

In a mid-October survey, just 32% believed the federal government should pass another economic stimulus plan, with 58% saying tax cuts would better stimulate the economy.

Sixty-two percent (62%) say it was a good idea for the president-elect to have a press conference about the troubled U.S. economy even though he will not become president for over two months. Twenty-seven percent (27%) disagree, and 10% are undecided.

Republicans are evenly divided on the wisdom of an early press conference, but 84% of Democrats think it was a good idea. Unaffiliated voters agree by 18 points. Male and female voters by more than two-to-one think the press conference was a good idea.

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