ECO-Fin-0013-Stock White House/Pete Souza

In a recent interview with Good Morning America, former President Bill Clinton urged President Obama to be more optimistic about America's future.

"I just want the American people to know that he's confident that we are going to get out of this and he feels good about the long run," Clinton said. "I just would like him to end by saying that he is hopeful and completely convinced we're going to come through this."

President Obama appears to have taken his Democratic predecessor's words to heart. His address to the nation on Tuesday night included some soaring rhetoric--"We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before"--and those who watched (52 million viewers, or about a third of the nation's households with TVs) liked what they heard.

To be sure, the results of instant polls taken after presidential speeches should be interpreted with care, because their audiences tend to be dominated by a president's supporters.

For example, in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey of 484 adults who watched the speech, 47 percent of the respondents identified themselves as Democrats (21 percent as Republicans and 30 percent as independents). Identification with the Democratic Party is strong these days, but it's not that strong. In a mid-February poll taken by the Pew Research Center, 36 percent of adults nationwide identified themselves as Democrats (24 percent as Republicans and 34 percent as independents).

Sixty-eight percent of the CNN/ORC respondents were very positive about the speech. In a Republican-heavy poll administered after George W. Bush's first speech to Congress in February 2001, a remarkably similar 66 percent thought highly of it. In that year's Gallup poll, 49 percent of respondents identified themselves as Republicans.

In the new CNN/ORC poll, 82 percent of speech watchers said his plan would succeed in creating or saving millions of jobs, 80 percent in improving the economy, 75 percent in improving the nation's health system and 68 percent in reducing the federal budget deficit.

In the CBS News/Knowledge Networks online poll, 74 percent of those who watched said his proposals would make the economy better. Only 11 percent said they would make it worse.

Eighty-five percent of respondents to the CNN/ORC poll said Obama's speech made them feel more optimistic. This expression of optimism in the face of current economic conditions is impressive. It is also uniquely American.

In the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted just a few days ago, 75 percent of those surveyed had had a job or pay cut in their household or had one of those things happen to a close friend or family member. In the same poll, however, two-thirds said they felt optimistic about their own family's future in the next 12 months, a rate about the same as researchers found a year ago.

Americans are also considerably more optimistic than Europeans. In a December 2008 Harris Interactive/Financial Times survey, majorities in France (63 percent), Italy (62 percent), Spain (59 percent), Great Britain (58 percent) and Germany (52 percent) were pessimistic about their own economic situation. By contrast, a majority of Americans, 54 percent, were optimistic about theirs. In a separate question of the poll, 83 percent of the French, 74 percent of Italians, 70 percent of Brits and Spaniards and 63 percent of Germans said they were pessimistic about their country's economic status. In the U.S. a smaller proportion, 52 percent, were pessimistic.

Harris regularly asks Americans about their overall life satisfaction. In October last year, 65 percent reported being very satisfied with the life they lead. In a European-U.S. comparison survey a few years earlier, 58 percent of Americans were very satisfied compared with an average of 31 percent in 15 E.U. countries. Americans were also more likely than the Europeans to report that their present situation was better than it had been five years earlier and that their personal situation would improve in the next five years.

For Obama, though, Americans' seemingly irrepressible optimism won't be enough in the long run. Performance will matter. But now, in the early days of his administration, he still needs to convey that he believes in a brighter future if he expects to push his ambitious agenda forward. The polls suggest he made a good start on Tuesday night.

Karlyn Bowman is a senior fellow at AEI.