US president-elect Barack Obama is riding a tide of public approval for his performance amid strong support for his top cabinet picks, a new poll shows.
Nearly a month after his historic November 4 election, and in the midst of the devastating downturn in the US economy, more than three out of four Americans approve of how Obama has handled his transition so far, according to the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll on Tuesday.
Of his high-profile cabinet appointments, 69 per cent to 25 per cent approve Obama's pick of his former Democratic nomination rival Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his secretary of state.
By an overwhelming margin, 80 per cent to 14 per cent of Americans endorse Obama's decision to ask President George W Bush's defence secretary Robert Gates to keep his post, said the poll.
As negative economic news continues to batter American confidence in the country's financial security, 58 per cent to 33 per cent said they support Obama's plan for huge spending packages to stimulate the crumbling economy.
By a more than three-to-one margin Americans said they trust Obama to handle the economy better than Bush, who will hand over control to the Democrats on January 20.
Hoping to hit the ground running to stem the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Obama has opted for many experienced Democratic operatives who last worked in government in the 1990s.
But by a margin of nearly four to one, Americans are not worrying that many of Obama's administration picks worked under president Bill Clinton, with most of them thinking that the appointees will help the incoming team lead more effectively.
The poll, which surveyed 1,010 adults on Monday, has margin of error of three per cent.
