Americans Still Pick Obama Over Bush

And it's not even close, according to the inaugural ABC News/Yahoo! News poll.

One finding: For all their economic gripes, 52 percent of Americans say they'd rather have President Obama than his predecessor in control of economic policy, vs. 35 percent who'd prefer to have former President Bush in charge.

These numbers aren't tremendously surprising. And they underscore the fact that although Americans may be turning away from the Democrats, they aren't so quickly embracing the GOP and its far-right economic policies.

At the same time, it's clear that the Democrats have not yet made the sale. Yes, Americans understand that George W. Bush's economic record was worse than abysmal. But they haven't necessarily made the connection that today's Republicans are trying to sell the same economic policies as George W. Bush -- only more so.

So the Democrats aren't there yet. But the public is affording them a real opportunity to combat this election in friendly territory. The question remains whether the Democrats can actually move the race for Congress to this territory or not.