Here are some poll results released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 38% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty percent (30%) Strongly Disapprove to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +8 ( see trends ).
Since release of the President's budget, the number of Republicans who Strongly Disapprove has grown to 57%. That's up fourteen percentage points since Thursday morning. Only 8% of Democrats share such a negative assessment.
Fifty-six percent (56%) say that Obama is a good or an excellent leader. Just 24% say he is a poor leader. For more measures, see Obama By the Numbers .
The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update ). Updates also available on Twitter. Overall, 58% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance so far while 40% disapprove.
While the President's numbers are down slightly since the inauguration, they remain substantially higher than the ratings for President George W. Bush. In February 2005, 28% Strongly Approved of Bush's performance while 33% Strongly Disapproved. During the final full month of the Bush 
Check out our weekly review of key polls from the past week to see " What They Told Us ."
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Of the four major goals outlined by the President in his speech last Tuesday, the public sees deficit reduction as the most important . That's also the goal seen as least likely to be achieved. Forty-six percent (46%) are at least somewhat confident that taxpayer money will be spent carefully and wisely in the Obama budget plan.
Fifty-one percent (51%) say it's a good idea to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year . Larry Kudlow says that the President is "declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds. "
On important national issues, 73% trust the judgment of the American people more than America's political leaders.
A Fordham University professor has rated the national pollsters on their record in Election 2008. We also have provided a summary of our results for your review.
Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error--for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters--is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for the full-week results are available for Premium Members .
Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large ( see methodology ). Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. While partisan affiliation is generally quite stable over time, there are a fair number of people who waver between allegiance to a particular party or independent status. Over the past four years, the number of Democrats in the country has increased while the number of Republicans has decreased.
Our baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 41.3% Democrats, 33.1% Republicans, and 25.6% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly smaller advantage for the Democrats.
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To download a copy of the original report, please use this link: How's Barack Doing?