The percentage of Americans in the new poll who said the country is on the right track still stands at just 42 percent, but that is the highest percentage saying so in five years and marks a sharp turnabout from last fall, when as many as nine in 10 said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Fifty-seven percent now consider the nation as moving on the wrong track…

Overall, almost two in three Americans, 64 percent, said they have confidence that Obama’s economic policies will improve the economy, but that number has dropped since he took office and began to implement his ideas. Before his inauguration, 72 percent were confident that his economic agenda would lead to a recovery. Now, after two months of vigorous debate about his stimulus package and ambitious budget blueprint, confidence has decreased by 13 points among independents and by a similar amount among Republicans.

At the same time, 62 percent see Obama as a “new-style,” fiscally responsible Democrat; fewer, about a third, label him an “old-style” Democrat oriented toward taxing and spending. Fifty-seven percent of independents consider Obama part of a new breed, the same percentage that said so of Clinton at the start of his first term.