Pretty well if you just look at the polls. His popularity is north of 60%, and that should be enough to drown out all but the most vocal boo birds.
But following the President's press conference Tuesday night an undercurrent of dissatisfaction was evident. The Presidential "Honeymoon Clock" is ticking.
CNN analyst Alex Castallanos, who supports Republicans, says the President's impatience at the news conference over a question about AIG is a sign that Mr. Obama himself is on the defensive about his politics. That question came from CNN's Ed Henry, and had to do with why it took Obama so long to react to the AIG bonuses. "Because," the President said, "I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."
The next morning, CNN's "American Morning" received mostly favorable calls about the President's press conference, but once again there were doubters. Gloria from Georgia said, "as I watched the Presidential address I want to know when and where can we the people expect some changes." Another said, "He is putting fiction on the plate and not really solving the problems."
And several Senate Democrats who call themselves moderates, sent a letter to the Senate Budget Committee chairman expressing concerns about Mr. Obama's 3.6 trillion dollar budget. They wrote, "the economy is even worse than it was when the President released his budget a month ago."
"I think he's not giving (Democrats) any cover," says Emory University Professor Drew Westin, an Obama supporter. "He's not giving them a way to go back home and say, look at what these other guys did. We're just cleaning up the mess."
"People wonder," says CNN Political Analyst Bill Schneider, "how long this is going to take to work. They are patient but they wonder when are we going to see some indication that things are going to go up?"
Westin says Mr. Obama can fix his problems by acting a little less like Lincoln and a little more like Franklin Roosevelt. Westin says FDR attacked his critics from the moment he took office, "he basically said I welcome your attacks because you guys are the guys that messed things up. Bring it on."