The Audacity Of Expectations

The good news for Pres.-elect Obama is that folks like him - a lot. The latest Diageo/Hotline poll shows him w/a whopping 65% approval rating. Forty-five percent strongly approve. By comparison, Pres. Bush was at 53% in 11/04. Just as important, 66% (including 33% of R's), are "confident" that Obama will bring real change to DC. The hitch: there's no mandate from voters on which issue he should tackle first.

-- GOPers want him to focus on energy issues. Dems say middle-class tax cuts. Indies split evenly between energy and oversight of the financial markets. Meanwhile, just 8% think infrastructure - one of Obama's key talking points during the campaign - should be a top priority.

-- And with high hopes come high expectations. 58% (including 42% of Dems) say Obama should cooperate w/GOPers even if it means he'll have to compromise his goals. And 61% (including 44% of Dems) say they want him to pick a cabinet evenly divided between GOPers and Dems.

-- Voters say they want the era of hyper-partisanship to be over. The real question now: Can Congress deliver on that hope?