U.S. divided on Obama economic policies

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WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- Most U.S. voters don't blame President Obama for the origin of the nation's economic woes but are divided on whether he's helped solve them, a survey indicates.

A Wall Street Journal/ NBC News poll released Tuesday found 60 percent of American voters surveyed believe Obama was saddled with the economic mess when he entered office in January 2009. That's down from 84 percent in February 2009 who said he inherited the situation from his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

In the latest survey, 26 percent said the Democratic president, who is up for re-election this year, is responsible for the down economy. Eleven percent said the blame should be spread around.

The poll said only 32 percent of Americans believe Obama's polices have made things better. Thirty-three percent say they have made things worse and 32 percent say they don't think Obama's policies have made much difference.

The 32 percent who see the Obama administration as helping improve the economy is up from 23 percent last August, when 37 percent said the president's policies were hurting the economy and 39 percent said they had no impact one way or the other.

The survey was conducted June 20-24 by the polling organizations of Democrat Peter D. Hart and Republican Bill McInturff. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

No sample size was reported.