The president has the trust of more Americans in economic matters on the eve of a State of the Union address in which he's expected to lay out a clear vision for his economic agenda.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday morning, 47% trust President Obama to handle the economy over Congressional Republicans, who win trust from only 41%.
The president is more trusted in other key policies areas too. On health care he bests Republicans by an eight-point margin, on foreign policy by a 14-point margin, and on the environment by a 24-point margin. He's even more trusted on the deficit (44% to 42%), gun policy (45% to 43%), and on immigration (46% to 41%).
Americans also agree the president is right to focus on the economy in Tuesday's State of the Union, with more Republicans, Democrats, and Independents naming that as the key issue Obama should focus on tomorrow. Overall, 35% picked that as the most important issue for him to focus on, while 20% named the deficit, and 15% named gun policy.
More than half of voter polls said the economy is still in recession (53%), with nearly eight in ten describing the economy as either "not so good" or "poor." Only about one in three say it's getting better, and slightly more (37%) say it's staying about the same.