Obama gets good marks for healthcare work

PRINCETON, N.J., March 24 (UPI) -- U.S. residents gave President Barack Obama higher marks than other political players on healthcare, but no one got positive ratings, a Gallup Poll indicated.

When asked how they would rate efforts by Obama, the Democrats and Republicans to address the U.S. healthcare system during the past year, 46 percent of respondents said Obama did a good-to-excellent job, while 31 percent said he did a poor job, results released Wednesday indicated. Twenty percent of respondents said Obama did a fair job on the issue

Congressional Democrats were damned with faint praise, with 32 percent of respondents saying they did well in addressing healthcare. Twenty percent judged Democrats' efforts only fair and 33 percent said they did poorly, results indicated.

Republicans earned high marks from 26 percent of respondents; 34 percent said the congressional GOP did fair and 34 percent said the minority party did a poor job on healthcare.

The Princeton, N.J., polling agency conducted its survey Monday after the House passed the legislation Sunday. Pollsters said the findings indicated Americans' initial reaction to the bill's passage was more positive than negative, noting that the debate's divisiveness meant none of the major players earned positive ratings.

Obama signed a sweeping health insurance reform bill into law Tuesday.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,005 adults conducted Monday. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.