Poll Confirms: GOP at Nadir

The honeymoon update is in — according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, President-elect Obama is in good shape just one month after winning the election. The bar has been set: Eighty percent say it’s likely he’ll improve America’s image around the world.

Seventy-three percent say it’s likely he’ll put the economy back on track, 70 percent say it’s likely that he’ll pull most U.S. troops out of Iraq within the next 16 months, and 61 percent say he’ll reduce taxes for the middle class.

While 79 percent of Americans say they won’t miss President George W. Bush — ouch ! — and 49 percent believe he will go down as one of the worst presidents in history, Obama holds strong a 67 favorability rating. A healthy majority of respondents like his Cabinet appointments so far and approve of his govern-don’t-govern straddle as well, with 75 percent approving of his level of involvement in policymaking.

There is more bad news for the GOP with the party’s favorability rating at 27 percent, which means a lot of Republicans don’t like the party, either. With a 52 percent unfavorability rating for the GOP it hits the lowest reading ever in that poll. But Sarah Palin — among Republicans ONLY — gets the most love with a 73 percent approval rating. Outside the party she’s bummin’ since the numbers drop down, according to NBC, to a “net negative of 35 percent-45 percent” fav/unfav once you throw in Democrats and independents.

The Clintons are back in fashion, according to the poll, now that Obama has let her join the club. And Dick Cheney is, well, not.

DID OBAMA ANSWER EVERYONE’S QUESTIONS ON BLAGO? THE LAST SEGMENT FOR 2008 of Ask A.B. returns Monday, Dec. 15. Please join my weekly video Q&A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. See you then!